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http://www.archive.org/details/understandingsou01coop 



UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 
CLAYTON SEDGWICK COOPER 




SUNSET AT RIO HARBOR 



UNDERSTANDING 
SOUTH AMERICA 



BY 

CLAYTON SEDGWICK COOPER 

Author of "The Man of Egypt," "The Brazilians and 

Their Country," "American Ideals" 

etc. 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW XBJr YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 






Copyright, 1918, 
By George H. Dor am Company 



Printed in the United States of America 

"fr *C 

OCT 31 1918 
©CU508037 



TO 

ROBERT SCOTT 

ONE OF THE MOST THOUGHTFUL 
OF FRIENDS 



PREFACE 

EDITH WHARTON, speaking of the French 
nation, has given, to my thinking, a most excel- 
lent rule for those who attempt to write of nations 
other than their own: 

There are only two ways of judging the character 
of a people: either, if one is of them, by finding the 
clue to their idiosyncrasies in one's self and one's ante- 
cedents; or, if one is a stranger, by seeking it in the 
contrasts between the aspirations and the results of 
the race one is studying and those of one's own people. 

He who writes about foreign people, saves himself 
from ineptitude, if not from downright impertinence, 
by the use of sympathetic imagination. Dogmatism, 
provincial opinion and sweeping generalisations are 
ruled out on the start for him who brings eyes for 
really seeing alien nationalities. Convictions of course 
are possible and necessary; providing the observer has 
acquainted himself with the historical background of a 
country, and stayed long enough, and not too long, in 
the land to meet a wide circle of diverse populations, 
bringing to his experience some knowledge of men and 
a trained observation. 

Yet there are various ways of expressing personal 
convictions relative to a foreign people. The Ger- 
man who styled the Latin Americans in general as 
"thinly veiled Indians," and the man who visited the 



viii PREFACE 

West Coast hurriedly during the South American win- 
ter and returned to his homeland to write of his ex- 
periences under the title, "To Hell and Back," were 
not in either case exactly fitting examples of the way 
to express conclusions about our neighbours to the south. 

On the other hand, it is a mistake to believe that 
foreign peoples are averse to being written about, pro- 
viding they are not ridiculed or held up to caricature. 
It is quite generally recognised that the observation of 
a foreigner fixes upon certain facts and traits unre- 
garded or seemingly insignificant to the native inhabi- 
tants. These trifling details to which the dweller in 
a country has become too accustomed to note, often 
throw the needed light upon a nation's characteristics. 
The unfamiliarity of the alien observer with the people 
and section studied, fits him for his task. 

In these times, furthermore, it is not only the his- 
torian and trade expert who are impelled to study the 
character and acts of other nationals. The war has 
dissolved territorial and geographical barriers and 
stirred social and national conditions so deeply that 
the average reader is startled out of his isolation and 
localism. He is made to realise the world at large in 
which every man with any pretension to citizenship or 
patriotism forms an integral, vital part. A nation is 
coming to be considered something more than an ani- 
mated business machine. When millions of men are 
laying down their lives for an ideal, there is necessarily 
a growing necessity to understand the underlying 
nature of the nations with whom we are fighting or 
having relationships — their traits, their traditions, their 
history, their institutions, and even their prejudices 



PREFACE ix 

begin to loom larger and larger. National idealism 
becomes the fountain head of national industrialism. 
The dreams of a people secure a place alongside of 
their accomplishments; the soul becomes the measure 
of national manhood and the index to national action. 
At Chicago in 1916 President Wilson said: 

America has no reason for being unless her destiny 
and duty be ideal. It is her incumbent privilege to de- 
clare and stand for the rights of men. Nothing else 
is worth fighting for and nothing else is worth sacri- 
ficing for. 

It has been in order to reveal certain of the prin- 
ciples actuating the men of South America, as well as 
to describe the tendencies and conditions of their lives 
and country that this book has been written. It is 
still too literally true that Americans in general are 
blissfully ignorant of the real motives that actuate our 
southern neighbours. We have been too accustomed 
to think of South Americans from what we have been 
pleased to consider a higher plane. As a rule we have 
not realised that in many respects South Americans are 
superior to North Americans, both as to their ideals 
and the manner of life in general. One meets fre- 
quently with foreigners, who know well these people, 
from whom the opinion is gained that the educated 
classes are better educated and are sounder in their 
whole view of life than are our own inhabitants. 

It has been too common also to judge foreign na- 
tions according to our own standard and to consider 
that our standards, both ethical and commercial, are 
absolute ones. It is easy to overlook the fact that 
each nation has its own standards of morality, as well 



% PREFACE 

as its own rule of commercial ethics, possessing a form 
of wit and culture, and general estimate of life, as dis- 
tinct as is its language and its history. It is impossible 
to begin to understand foreign people until we have 
made some progress in learning their historical back- 
ground, the things that seem good in their eyes, their 
language and their modes of doing business. 

In our trade relations, also, with the South Amer- 
icans we have been too inclined at times simply to sell 
goods to them, and as one South American put it, "to 
forget that we must sell goods and service together," 
if permanent trade is to be maintained. After the 
war we shall have the greatest opportunity ever 
afforded us to prove our ability to compete with Euro- 
peans in South American trade. Unless we are most 
alert and reveal, not only by the price and quality of 
our goods, but also by our mental attitude to Latin 
Americans that we really wish to do business with them, 
our capable European competitors will take away from 
us even that which we have gained. Undoubtedly the 
chief and underlying commercial needs at present are 
American banking facilities in South America and bet- 
ter transportation arrangements between the two sec- 
tions. However, unless we as a people can show 
ourselves capable of securing the point of view, so 
different from our own, of our southern neighbours, 
we shall find advance difficult. 

A prominent Brazilian, writing recently concerning 
what he considered the fundamental necessity for se- 
curing better relationships of all kinds between North 
and South America, said: 

"You people of the North must learn to trust Latin 



PREFACE xi 

Americans as you trust and have confidence in your 
brother Americans. You must learn to realise that 
we are worthy of your confidence, and that in point of 
honour we do not take second place to any other na- 
tion." 

In the following pages I have tried to point out some 
of the leading characteristics and tendencies of the 
South Americans who represent many diverse types 
and sections. The German "penetration" has been 
studied; and the South American institutions and in- 
dustries. I have tried to give some inkling of the 
national background and the natural resources, of the 
methods of doing business, the place that Americans 
and other foreigners have gained in trade, as well as 
indicating certain results of study and contact with 
many representatives of the Southern Republics con- 
cerning present day requirements. 

Clayton Sedgwick Cooper. 
New York City. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I GETTING ACQUAINTED 19 

II THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN . . . . . 3 1 

III THE GERMANS IN LATIN AMERICA 47 

IV BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA .... 72 

V TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS — THE ECUADORIANS 

AND BOLIVIANS 87 

VI THE PERUVIANS I06 

^ VII NATURAL RESOURCES OF PERU II7 

VIII THE INDIAN OF PERU I24 

IX CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY I35 

X LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT INCAS . . 1 52 

XI CHILEAN MEN 164 

XII SANTIAGO, THE CITY OF ARISTOCRACY . . . I78 

XIII BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST . l88 

XIV PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE . . . 208 
XV THE ARGENTINES 227 

XVI BUENOS AIRES — THE CITY DE LUXF .... 248 

XVII THE SOUTH AMERICAN COWBOY 261 

XVIII URUGUAY AND THE URUGUAYANS 269 

XIX THE MEN OF BRAZIL 284 

XX BRAZIL — AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 298 

XXI AUTOMOBILING IN BRAZIL 3 12 

xiii 



xiv CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXII THE SEA THAT GUARDS RIO 323 

XXIII SOUTH AMERICAN WOMEN 328 

XXIV THE RELIGION OF THE SOUTH AMERICANS . . 34I 
XXV SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 366 

XXVI THE AMERICAN CONSUL AND HIS WORK . . . 395 

XXVII WINNING SOUTH AMERICANS 4-02 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

sunset at Rio harbour Frontispiece v 

PAGE 

THE BULL RING, LIMA 38 ' 

THE JOCKEY CLUB STAND, HIPPODROME, BUENOS AIRES 38 

"LAS BALSAS" REED BOATS, LAKE TITICACA .... 90 

MASKED DANCERS AT CARMEN ALTO DURING CARNIVAL . 13' 

RUINS, PALACE OF THE INCA, CUZCO 1 3 S 

A PATAGONIAN TRIBE OF SOUTHERN CHILE . . . . 17O'"' 

ARICA, THE TERMINUS OF THE NEW CHILEAN RAILROAD 

JROM LA PAZ 192^ 

PRIMITIVE PLOUGHING IN CHILE I92 

ALVAER AVENUE IN BUENOS AIRES 232" 

THE GAUCHO AS A WANDERING MINSTREL .... 264 

A GROUP OF GAUCHOS AT A COUNTRY ESTATE . . . 264 

AVENUE OF ROYAL PALMS IN RIO DE JANEIRO . . . 29O' 

AVENIDA RIO BRANCO — RIO JANEIRO 302 

THE BAY OF BOTAFOGA AND THE CITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO 

BY NIGHT 302 

CATHEDRAL FROM PLAZA, LIMA 350 

INTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL, AREQUIPA 35° 

A CLASS IN AN AMERICAN GIRLS' SCHOOL IN SANTIAGO . 372, 

THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, SAO PAULO . . . -372 

xv 



UNDERSTANDING 
SOUTH AMERICA 

CHAPTER I 

GETTING ACQUAINTED 

The happiness of the world, as well as its peace, will be pnx 
moted when men learn to look at world problems not from 
the viewpoint of their own nation alone, but from that of other 
nations as well. — Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler. 

IT has been said with good reason that the portrait 
that one nation paints of another is likely to appear 
a libel or a caricature to the sitter. This applies 
with peculiar force to the two Americas. 

Neither of the Americas have had a square deal, the 
one from the other. Far too much ignorance, ridicule 
and national prejudice have been mixed with the col- 
ours to get a clear picture. 

We have never really known each other. I once 
knew an Englishman who took a peculiar and inveter- 
ate dislike to another Englishman. A friend of the 
two men contrived to bring them to the same club in 
London one day, and taking my English acquaintance 

aside said, "I want you to meet Mr. whom you 

dislike." 

19 



20 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 5 

My friend replied, "I absolutely refuse to know 
him, — Why, how do you suppose I can hate him if I 
get acquainted with him?" 

It has struck me as significant that the North Amer- 
icans who really know best our neighbours to the south 
usually like them. They are often enthusiastic in 
their praise of the Latin Americans, and even when 
they point out their faults, it is with something of the 
attitude with which your real friend knows all about 
you and still loves you. 

During a recent year south of the Rio Grande, I 
noted repeatedly a similar tendency among the South 
Americans who had visited or lived for some time in 
the United States. I have never heard the natural- 
born "boomer" of our great West rhapsodise over his 
particular state as some Latin Americans now glorify 
everything made in North America. I even met a 
Chilean of an old family in Valparaiso, who on re- 
turning recently from New York, brought along an 
entire steam-heating plant which he installed in his 
house ! This fact impressed me as most promising 
toward better inter-American relationships, since this 
was the only house on the whole West Coast in which 
I was able to keep warm enough to really enjoy life. 
The gentle reader may think this is a joke. It is not. 
I never was so continuously cold in all my life as dur- 
ing the months spent travelling about this particular sec- 
tion during the Peruvian and Chilean winter. Even 
though it has taken several centuries, more or less, for 
one open minded and sensible Chilean to have been 
raised up by a divine Providence to visit the United 
States and get his hands and feet warm, and determine 



GETTING ACQUAINTED 21 

to pass on this comfortable sensation to generations 
yet unborn, no one has the right to lose confidence in 
the influence of international contact. 

Yet, important as it may seen to be to the man from 
the "States" that he duplicate as far as possible the 
living conditions he left behind him in a steam-heated 
apartment, it's not the house, the furnace, the stucco 
work on the front of the building, or the existence or 
absence of the patio in the middle of it, that is primal 
and vital to mutual understanding. It is the man who 
lives in the house that counts. What he is and why he 
is it, what he thinks and why, what are his ideals and 
ambitions and how he is forging toward them in his 
particular environment — these are of first moment — 
these were the things I tried to find out in my visit 
to the South Americans. 

This kind of knowledge is harder to get than statis- 
tics of birth rates and trade balances; the men who 
have succeeded best in doing business with Latin Amer- 
icans tell me that these are also more important for 
any permanent progress in commercial dealing. To 
study the characteristics of the kind of men who inhabit 
South America is also of quite as much consequence 
as to study the country itself. In fact a traveller who 
may be able to tell you the length of every river, the 
height of every mountain and every climatic and geo- 
graphical detail from Para to Patagonia, may still be 
as ignorant of the inner motives and springs of action 
of this diverse people, as he was before he set his foot 
on South American soil. 

And this for the simple reason that, through the 
working of forces over which humanity seems to have 



22 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

slight control, the Latin Americans do not seem to 
belong logically to the country in which fate has placed 
them. In Japan the land and the sky and water seem 
to be at once the suitable setting for a race of men 
such as we find there. The country appears to be 
made to order for them. The one is reflected in the 
other; if you found any people about Miajima, Nikko, 
or anywhere in the long graceful shadows of Fuji who 
were not artistic, romantic, beauty-loving and patriotic, 
you would feel the anachronism. 

How unlike is the condition in Latin America ! 
Here are seventy millions or more of people, in whose 
veins flows the original mixed blood of Latin and 
Moor, naturally a race of thinkers, poets, politicians, 
theorists, inapt for scientific or agricultural or indus- 
trial pursuits, set down in a vast unconquered continent 
of physical opportunity. With an early settlement 
made by a promiscuous lot of adventurers, freebooters, 
and spendthrifts, who never did any work at home 
and came to South America to loot and to kill, carry- 
ing away everything they could transport, these young 
republics had no inheritance of colonisation or self 
government worth mentioning. Yet they were called 
upon suddenly to control and govern unfused and 
diverse populations, whose inheritance had been 
bureaucracy, office-seeking and living as easily as pos- 
sible on favouritism. 

With huge mountains to tunnel and thick forests and 
jungles to subdue, with arid lands to irrigate, and pesti- 
lential and fever-stricken tropical areas to cleanse, with 
a country of natural resources second to none on the 
planet, requiring miners, and manufacturers, foresters 



GETTING ACQUAINTED 23 

and farmers of the first grade, here is a fateful anomaly 
of residents who inherited the strong feeling that 
manual work was for slaves and coolies only, that a 
polite profession, like law and literature or politics, 
was the only vocation for a* gentleman. These people 
regarded commerce, industry and agriculture, while 
necessary, as undesirable as they were distasteful to 
temperaments, in which the practical, the utilitarian, 
and the scientific had received little or no attention for 
generations. 

It is a wonder that with a country, seemingly as un- 
fitted as it well could be, in its needs, to the traits and 
faculties of the people who were responsible for its 
subjugation and development, the Latin Americans 
have been able as quickly as they have, to make such 
beginning of governments and institutions. 

It is fair to state that among the means which have 
been pre-eminent in acquainting the two Americas with 
each other has been the Pan American Union in Wash- 
ington. It has not been an easy task nor has it been 
altogether a popular one that Mr. John Barrett and 
his excellent staff have had before them in their en- 
deavour to bring together in knowledge and co-opera- 
jion the United States and Latin America; yet since 
the first Pan-American conference held in Washington 
in the winter of 1889 and 1890, when Secretary of 
State James G. Blaine presided, there has been a con- 
tinuous and ever enlarging service rendered by this 
Union having the comprehensive purpose of "develop- 
ing commerce, intercourse, friendship and peace," 
among the republics of the Western Continent. 

The Pan American Union with its official organisa- 



24 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

tion of twenty-one American republics, maintained by 
their joint quotas based upon population, is controlled 
by a Governing Board which is composed of the 
Secretary of State of the United States, who is Chair- 
man ex-officio, and the Diplomatic Representatives of 
Latin America in Washington. The Union is ad- 
ministered by a Director General elected by that Board, 
who, in turn, is assisted by a staff of experts in Pan 
American matters and subjects. The value of the 
service which it renders is signified by the fact that 
the daily list of visitors averages between 500 and 
1000, and its yearly correspondence of letters, period- 
icals and circulars reaches the total of 100,000 to 
500,000. All those desiring information and seeking 
a better acquaintance with these people would do well 
to keep in mind this Union which is devoted so thor- 
oughly to the cause of more perfect relationship be- 
tween the United States and the States in the Southern 
hemisphere. 

When we inquire as to the kind of people South 
Americans are, their success at making nations, their 
place in trade and commerce, and their future, we are 
brought to consider the racial history and present re- 
lationships of varied nationalities in South America. 
No doubt in the southern half of this continent there 
is being attempted at present a melting together of 
races such as is not found in any other part of the 
civilised world. At the bottom of this melting pot we 
find the pure Indian, constituting approximately nine 
millions of the forty-five millions of the inhabitants of 
the South American republics. In Brazil and espe- 
cially in the republics bordering on the Caribbean 



GETTING ACQUAINTED 25 

Sea, the negro may be placed also alongside the Indian. 
These are the workers of the soil, the diggers in the 
mines, the "hewers of wood and the drawers of water" 
in this vast southern continental area. 

While there are exceptions, of course, it may be 
said in general that these races in the substratum of 
society, by reason of lack of education or personal 
initiative, are without a voice either in the making of 
laws or the formation of opinion. To be sure, civil 
rights are theirs, on the statute books, but they have 
not as yet claimed their rights. In some cases tropic- 
ally indolent, in others crushed in spirit by the domina- 
tion and practices of their conquerors, the Indian and 
Negro of these regions may be eliminated from the 
body of intelligent nationmakers. Economically they 
are at present indispensable, in countries like Peru, Bo- 
livia and Brazil, but education and training in respon- 
sible citizenship has not reached them as yet to any 
appreciable extent. In certain places the Indians are 
less advanced than in the days before the Spanish con- 
querors wrested from their hands the great Andean 
plateaus. Like the populations generally, their re- 
ligion is nominally Catholic, but their forms of worship 
are tinged highly with the magic and the superstitious 
rites and ceremonies handed down from their distant 
ancestry. 

The next layer in the melting pot is that of the 
mestizo, or the mixture of European blood with the 
South American Indian or the African Negro. This 
mixture is of many degrees, and it may be roughly 
estimated as composing thirteen or fourteen millions of 
the total population, though it is of all things difficult 



26 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

here in these countries to say precisely where the de- 
marcation lies between the mestizo and the pure white 
populations. In this middle layer of racial society, 
much of the national evolution and racial characteristic 
of the inhabitants is now in process of development. 
It is here that the old Spanish and Portuguese strain 
of blood, mingled with the Aborigines particularly, is 
revealing the distinctive traits of a new race evolving 
under peculiar historical, racial and geographical con- 
ditions. This class of population cannot be considered 
in the category of the half-caste or Eurasian of the 
East, for many of the enlightened and cultured leaders 
of South America point with pride to the racial link 
binding them to Indian ancestry. 

One of the most honoured of Brazilian judges said 
to me with no evidence of aught but pride, "I am a 
caboclo!" This tincture of Indian blood flowing in 
his veins is held by him as by many another, a sign of 
strength and not of weakness. 

The upper layer of white racial stock may be said 
to comprise about fifteen millions of the inhabitants, 
though if we estimate the racial conditions by separate 
countries, the results would be quite different. Uru- 
guay and Argentina, for example, show almost an 
entire white population save for the Argentine Indians 
in the North of the big republic, while the sturdy 
Araucanian Indians of Chile have ceased largely from 
being a factor in the racial intermixture of the country, 
being isolated somewhat as were the Indians of the 
United States. In Bolivia and Peru, on the other 
hand, there are at least three and a half million Indians, 



GETTING ACQUAINTED 27 

and one and a half million of mestizos, out of a popu- 
lation of six millions. 

Paraguay is even more an Indian republic. The 
Guarani Indian language is the most common tongue, 
and throughout the long stretch of the Andean table- 
lands and lofty altitudes from Ecuador to Chile and 
Argentina, it is stated that less than one fifth of the 
Indians are able to speak Spanish, but retain their 
mother tongues of Quichua, Aymara or local Indian 
dialects. 

It is only as one holds in mind these racial facts 
that any worth while judgments and analysis of South 
Americans can be attempted. It is apparent that a 
civilisation that possesses at the top peoples of the 
highest culture and standards of life, bearing compari- 
son with those of any other part of the world, and at 
the bottom so large a population still sunk in ignorance, 
and in some cases for considerable areas in abject 
savagery, is difficult of generalisation. There is far 
more dissimilarity between populations in various 
South American republics, and in some cases between 
the peoples of the same republic, than is found between 
many European countries; there is far more of differ- 
ence than between the most diverse of the population 
of North American states. 

Yet there are several lines of characteristic running 
through all of the social and political life of these 
southern republics, marking off the section as a whole 
from other parts of the world. 

One of these is the virtual absence of prejudice 
against colour. The distinctions among South Ameri- 
cans are those of rank or class, not of the colour of a 



28 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

man's skin. A South American of the upper classes 
who might marry an Indian, would probably lose 
something of his standing, very much as an American 
might by intermarrying, making a mesalliance, with his 
serving woman. But his case in no wise would be 
aggravated by reason of marrying a woman of colour 
other than his own. South America is particularly 
free of racial antagonisms because of the colour ques- 
tion. Indians and negroes are treated differently so- 
cially than almost anywhere else in the civilised world 
to-day. The man of half blood, or even the full- 
blooded Indian or the Negro, is given rank according 
to his accomplishments or degree of intelligence. I 
have met negroes in the Academy of Letters among 
the Forty Immortals of Brazil, and I have seen in many 
other countries men in public life highly honoured and 
revered, whose facial lines bore the distinct marks of 
their Indian ancestry. Another sign of the absence of 
colour distinctions, as we feel these here in the north, 
is the tendency in South America to count all persons 
usually denominated as mestizos among the white 
populations. 

It is furthermore a mixed Latin and Oriental culture, 
one finds in these regions. The attitude of the Latin 
American to the saving or use of time, for example, 
could be amply illustrated by any observant business 
traveller or visitor in these southern republics. We 
have met many Latin Americans who have reminded 
us of Stevenson's wish that heaven would be a place 
where he would not have to keep any hours. The 
North American's time-saving habits are a puzzle to 
many people residing in Eastern or South American 



GETTING ACQUAINTED 29 

latitudes. The President of a certain South American 
republic visited a large industrial plant not long ago, 
which enterprise was being carried on by an American. 
During his inspection he had reason to call attention 
to a matter needing attention in order to comply with 
the country's laws. 

The industrial manager said he would attend to the 
business, but sometime afterwards the President called 
his secretary and inquired as to whether the required 
changes had been made. The secretary responded: 

"Surely they have been made. Did not Senor say 

he would do it? He is an American, and Americans 
always tell the truth." 

The President was thoughtful for a few minutes, and 
then said, half to himself, "I have it now. The 
Americans tell the truth in order to save time. If you 
don't tell the truth you always, sooner or later, lose a 
lot of time in explaining things. Americans like most 
to save time, therefore they tell the truth." 

One soon learns that, among Latin Americans, the 
more leisurely and courteously one does a thing the 
sooner and more pleasantly will it be accomplished. 
Save in the largest business centres, there is an absence 
of strain and stress such as characterise life in northern 
latitudes. Pleasure, friendship, family-life, and for- 
malities bulk larger. Business is more effective among 
the South Americans than we are led at times to sup- 
pose, but one does not receive the impression that it 
occupies the front of the stage, so politely and gra- 
ciously is it carried along. More than one northern 
trader who has tasted the free and happy hospitality 
of a South American home, or has learned here that 



30 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

quality of life and accomplishments as well as quantity, 
counts in the long run, has returned home with some, 
regret to his usual strenuous routine, 

"That vain low strife 
Which makes men mad, the tug for wealth and power, 
The passion and the cares that wither life 
And waste its little hour." 

The South American, with his quieter and more 
leisured existence, doubtless has turned his attention 
too completely to politics, literature and the arts in 
the environment of culture, copying the flowering of 
Old World foundations, forgetting at times that the 
practical bases of his agricultural and industrial empire 
are not yet securely laid. It is to be hoped that in the 
present widespread awakening to commercial and 
economic matters, he will not inherit the slavery along 
with the efficiency. 



CHAPTER II 

THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN 

We have been misjudged, we have been misrepresented at all 
times. And all because our critics have failed to look into our 
early histories and ascertain the why and wherefore of the 
present state of affairs. — Senor Don Frederico A. Pezet, 
former Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to 
the United States from Peru. 

SOUTH AMERICANS are at heart as chivalrous 
as the Japanese. Their patriarchal customs, 
home life, gift-making, and treatment of the elder 
members of the family, remind one of China. Their 
love of colour and romance is quite East Indian, while 
the semi-seclusion of women, found especially on the 
West Coast, is evidently a vestige of those customs 
with which a Moorish culture marked the Iberian 
Peninsula for several centuries. 

The climate of many portions of the southern 
Western hemisphere also suggests the East. One finds 
a pageantry of beauty and radiant warmth of sun and 
air germane only to tropical skies. The balmy nights 
beneath the Southern Cross may not be more wonder- 
ful than those under the more sombre, elevated 
northern skies; yet they belong to one's feeling more 
than to one's reason. To many a nature and tempera- 
ment, these lands of sunshine and palms speak directly 

31 



32 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

to the heart and to the emotions; they associate them- 
selves easily with subtle and remote things — age, mys- 
tery, imagination, and all things antipodal to the push- 
ing practical life of the North and West. The tropics 
are for dreams as other places are for work. 

The mental endowments of the Latin Americans are 
also more in line with Oriental than with Occidental 
characteristics. 

The South American is theoretical rather than prac- 
tical. In his indirect and round-about approach to a 
subject, he is like the Oriental, as he is unlike the man 
of the Occident. He seeks the prettiest road rather 
than the shortest one to a given point. He loves dis- 
play, and has a penchant for the literary and artistic, 
rather than the industrial and scientific. There is an 
ingrained love of politics throughout South America, 
and the men are talented in oratorical and rhetorical 
matters, while in literature and languages they easily 
surpass in their aptitudes the men of the business civili- 
sation of the United States. 

As devotees to form and to the courteous at all times, 
the South American is proverbially correct. I knew 
of a large manufacturing house in the "States" which 
lost recently a very large order for goods because the 
agent, sent down to deliver the order, forgot the usual 
politeness of taking off his hat when he entered the 
Latin American's office, calling the dignified Latin 
American, "Old Man," and whacking him familiarly 
on the back, with true Middle West fervour. 

The Oriental trait of saying the pleasant thing is 
very common. The South American believes and 
works on the principle stated by St. Francis de Sales : 



THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN 33 

"It is better to hold back a truth than to speak it 
ungraciously." It is a land of compliment, ofttimes 
of polite flattery, and handshaking, embracing, and 
inquiries as to your friend's health, family, and social 
matters are seldom forgotten as preludes to the most 
important and pressing business. In dealing with any 
one south of the Rio Grande, it is well to recall the old 
motto of William of Wyckham — "Manners maketh 
the man." 

No East Indian or Egyptian is more eager to secure 
a position with the Government than is the South Amer- 
ican. The predominance of law schools over any 
other branch of training reveals the tendency. Poli- 
tics is a gentleman's vocation, and officialdom holds a 
place of eminence that North Americans have never 
given it. It is natural that favouritism should follow 
in the train of such inclinations. One of the foes to 
progress in South America to-day is the overloading 
of Government positions, and the abnormal place that 
friendship holds as a key to securing office, regardless 
often of suitable personal qualifications. When it 
comes to a knowledge of law, especially a thorough 
acquaintance with historical background and the theory 
of politics, the Latin American is noteworthy. Here, 
as in most other places, there is need of men of unselfish 
devotion to execute the laws, and even a greater need 
of unification and co-ordination of political measures, 
as between states and the federal governments. In 
Brazil, for instance, where the export duties vary 
widely in different states, and in Peru, where taxation 
of foreign business is inclined to follow somewhat 
capriciously the prosperity of the business, modern sta- 



34 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

bility of trade is handicapped and frequently unsettled. 

Apart from the certain influences of Oriental civili- 
sation that South America has inherited from Spain 
and Portugal, where the traces of the Moslem and the 
Moor are more generally evident than in any other 
part of Europe, there are scientists who trace the early 
settlements of this country by way of the Behring 
Straits from Far Eastern sources. There is historical 
evidence to prove a racial stream, with distinct Mon- 
golian and Malay features, from Eastern Asia, flowing 
down the Pacific coast and finding a habitat in the lofty 
Andean sections. The Cuzco Indians, as well as the 
native tribes found to-day in Brazil and Paraguay, re- 
mind the traveller of the facial types and habits of life 
found in many islands peopled by Malaysians, while 
one takes photographs of life, among the lower orders 
particularly, that might be duplicated in many parts of 
China or southern Asia. 

If one is looking for Orientalism in South America, 
he will find it in the music in rural districts that bears 
the minor strain and rhythmic beat of the East. Bur- 
dens are carried on the head, as in many equatorial 
regions. The mantas of the women, the sandalled feet 
of the working classes, the highly coloured costumes of 
tropical sections in Brazil and Bolivia, the presence 
everywhere of much jewelry, the use of the mud hut, 
and primitive carts and bullocks, the farming utensils, 
the water-jars, the absence of privacy in the homes, and 
the ready volubility of all classes, are all indicative of 
inheritance and models absent from the northern parts 
of the Western continent. 

In Bogota, Harry Franck tells of the customs of per- 



THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN 35 

ambulating students, studying as they walk about, as 
do the students in Ceylon and certain parts of India : 

"We had only to glance out of our window," saysi 
Mr. Franck, "to find . . . the plaza below always 
alive with students from the local institution of higher 
learning for males, marching slowly back and forth 
conning the day's lessons. The fireless houses are cold 
and dungeon-like, particularly in the morning, and the 
city long ago formed the habit of studying afoot. The 
racial dislike of solitude and the eagerness to be seen 
and recognised by their fellows as devotees of learn- 
ing may also have some part in a practice that many 
a Bogotano continues through life. It is a common- 
place to pass in almost any street men even past mid- 
dle age strolling along with an open book in one hand 
and the inevitable silver-headed cane in the other." 

The South American is as easily a poet, a musician, a 
painter, a politician, or some kind of literary person, 
as the North American becomes without effort a me- 
chanical expert or a business man. The type of mind 
in the one case is spiritual and literary; in the other 
it is practical and scientific. The qualities are com- 
plementary and in their union there resides one of the 
richest possibilities of pan-Americanism. 

Definite examples of Orientalism are strewn thickly 
along the path of the traveller through these southern 
republics. 

Utility disappears before ornateness in many cases. 
I have visited high officials in certain parts of western 
South America, in homes that were scarcely surpassed 
in gorgeous appointments by palaces in Europe, and 
the rooms were so cold that everybody perforce had 
to wear their overcoats to keep from freezing. 



36 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

It is proverbial that no business or anything else 
can be done in these parts without buildings that are 
as big and dignified as they are pretentious. I visited 
a missionary school that the president said was doomed 
until they could secure a better building and situation, 
as the Latin American youth would not under any 
circumstances be caught either going in or coming 
out from a structure so common-place. The houses of 
business have a palatial look, and a New York sky- 
scraper would seem an irretrievable blot on the land- 
scape of a Latin American city, no matter how con- 
venient or useful it might be for business purposes. 
Even small houses are often covered on the front with 
stucco work and elaborate designs, all of which is in 
glaring contrast to the rear portion of the dwelling, 
that is out of sight. 

The South American is as delicately thoughtful and 
careful about saying abrupt and disagreeable things 
as is any Oriental. No people are more long suffering 
in regard to sympathy with foreigners who murder 
their Spanish or Portuguese. One can make all man- 
ner of mistakes but your polished Latin American will 
never indicate by as much as the flicker of the eyelash 
that you are not speaking in the most perfect Castilian 
or Lisbon phrase. 

A man of my acquaintance had excellent proof of this 
chivalric Latin forbearance when in the attempt to 
explain to a very solemn and dignified Peruvian official 
that while in the lofty altitudes of the Andes he nearly 
lost his mind. He intended to say — "I nearly lost my 
brains" — His Spanish became a bit muddled and he 
actually said — "I nearly lost my kidneys in the Andes" 



THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN 37 

— at which the polite official without a trace of a smile, 
replied, "How sad!" — and the traveller did not dis- 
cover his mistake in the use of two Spanish words 
sounding somewhat alike until he had left the country. 

The attitude at such mistakes is seemingly — "I am 
sure that you do not mean what you say, but I under- 
stand what you are trying to tell me, and I realise it 
would be most ill-mannered to correct you, and thereby 
embarrass you." 

As to the prodigal use of flowery speech to express 
his compliments, no Easterner can surpass the Latin 
American. Here is a description of a marriage clipped 
from a paper on the West Coast: 

"Nuptials: — The virtuous and angelical Senorita 
Fulano has united herself forever with the perfect 
gentleman, Senor Sutano. In view of the character- 
istics of so sympathetic a couple, there must ever shine 
upon their hearth the star of felicity, perfumed by the 
delicious ambient of the pure and virgin love which 
dwells in the innocent heart of the spiritual spouse. 
That the sun of happiness may radiate always in the 
blue heaven of this marriage is the vehement desire 
of those who, full of rejoicing with this felicity, sign 
themselves — their friends." 



When in certain colder and more austere countries 
where "business is business" and not much else, and 
where time is at a premium, a youth would say hur- 
riedly to a prospective employer — "I want a job" — 
in Chile, at least, this is the manner in which one of 
the scions of a good family addressed a foreign official, 
in a language not his own, to be sure, but in a style 



88 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

that was more or less characteristic of his upbring- 
ing:— 

"Very respected Sir: — 

Animated only by the confidence which inspires the 
well-intentioned, I dare make your distinguished per- 
sonality aware of a desire, which if it receives a fa- 
vourable reception by your kindness will compromise 
the eternal gratitude of the signer, and his family. 

I am nineteen years old and desire to occupy a sec- 
ondary position in the offices of the Braden Copper 
Co., it having been impossible for me up to the pres- 
ent, to find one in the capital. 

To have the assurance of being accepted immedi- 
ately I dare to beg of you, if you would be so kind, 
that you condescend to bestow upon me a letter of 
presentation addressed to the Mr. Manager of that 
establishment. 

I realise the great influence which you would exer- 
cise over the spirit of the Mr. Manager on presenting 
me to offer my services, supported by the word of one 
of the most worthy personalities of the North Amer- 
ican Nation in Chile, and it is for this reason, Sir, that 
I have hesitated until making the present reach your 
hands. 

I possess references from two senators of the Re- 
public who know and recommend me, as well as cer- 
tificates which confirm my good conduct and my apti- 
tude for office work. 

Awaiting your distinguished opinion on my petition 
and trusting, Sir, that you will pardon the trouble, I 
remain, Distinguished Sir, 

Your attentive and sure servant, 

M. Perez Besoin." 

Here is the circumlocution of the Chinese, and the 
verbal honorifics of speech of the Japanese. The 




THE BULL RING, LIMA 




THE JOCKEY CLUB STAND, HIPPODROME, BUENOS AIRES 



THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN 39 

above examples are not put forward as absolute types 
of Latin American journalism, or letter-writing. Both 
are somewhat extreme cases of the tendency toward a 
redundant and formal use of language which is dis- 
tinctive of Latin American speech and writing. From 
the northern point of view, the men born under warmer 
skies might with profit learn the art of compression and 
directness. Yet he who went about to change char- 
acteristic attitudes or modes of expression in either 
South America or the Orient, would find before him 
a task as impregnable as it would be foolish. 

Our northern devotion to business and breathless 
haste are quite as comical to the Latin American. 

In a theatre in Rio de Janeiro, a play was running 
while I was there in which a young American business 
man in a sack suit and straw hat was pictured as a 
lover. He came running in a hurried manner across 
the stage at frequent intervals, shook hands with his 
young lady-fiance, exclaiming hurriedly, — "I love you, 
— but I must go back to my office." After which he 
would charge off the stage. 

In Latin America, our brusque business etiquette is 
an abomination to the leisured, cultured folk of the 
better classes. They would speak of us probably if 
they were perfectly frank, as I once heard a scholarly 
Bengali of Calcutta describe a very practical English- 
man as "one of the uncomfortable works of God." 

The attitude of the South American toward work 
in general is more in line with that of the pleasure- 
loving Spaniard, who inherited much of his love of 
idle gentlemanhood, and his inaptitude for regular and 
sustained labour from the racial stock that was Berbef 



40 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

and Oriental before it became mixed with southern 
European elements. Work is often a necessity among 
the higher classes of South Americans; it rarely seems 
to be a natural hearty impulse. One misses the love 
of business for business' sake found in the United 
States. 

A gorgeous fiesta is more interesting to the Latin 
American than an agricultural fair, and a carnival will 
close the business houses for days at a time. Our 
Latin neighbours prefer Paris for a holiday to New 
York or Chicago, since to them the French Capital 
represents more truly the home of pleasure, art and 
the charm of sans souci, attractive to the Latin tem- 
perament, to which utilitarianism and steady grind of 
work are usually distasteful. 

Yet the Spanish American, like the famous Toledo 
blades of his ancestors, possesses a high degree of flexi- 
bility. He can adapt himself to circumstances in a 
wonderful manner as the ever enlarging number of 
keen South American business men bear witness. In 
fact, this man of the southern republics is keenly intui- 
tive and adjustable even to labour that is disagreeable 
to his native bent; he is emotional and verbose, but he 
is like the Oriental again, very intelligent; he loves his 
friends and will often sacrifice what we would call 
"good business" for their sake, yet in heart quality he 
can give suggestions of value to many other nations; 
he is intensely chivalrous and an ardent admirer of 
women, and this works usually toward the making of 
good homes; — and the elimination of bachelors; he 
prefers gambling indoors to out-of-doors sports, and 
this has not helped his physique, but with less strenu- 



THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN 41 

ous working habits, and also less money ambition, he 
conserves his energy more truly than does the North 
American; and one finds few sanitariums for broken 
nerves and enfeebled bodies beneath the Southern 
Cross. 

In school work the South American, again Orientally 
minded, loves literature and drawing exercises best, 
and uses his memory by preference before his reasoning 
faculties. While visiting schools in these republics, I 
was often reminded of a certain Chinese student whom 
I once asked in a visit to a missionary school in Hong- 
kong to tell me the difference between the teaching of 
Moses and Confucius. He hesitated with a character- 
istic Chinese pause, then said: "Far be it for me, a hum- 
ble student, to act as critic between two such great men 
as Moses and Confucius, but — " he added, brighten- 
ing up, "if you would like to have me repeat from 
memory the books of the Old Testament I can do it," 
and he forthwith treated me with a running catalogue 
of the books from Genesis to Malachi; he was starting 
to repeat them backwards when his teacher stopped 
him. 

It is well known that almost any Latin American 
can rise to his feet and make a more eloquent speech" 
extemporaneously, than could the average North 
American or Englishman after preparation. Like the 
Oriental, he likes to talk and he is extremely good at 
talking. It is not in the least unusual to find him 
capable of speaking several languages other than his 
own Spanish or Portuguese, and he is now adding 
English with considerable rapidity to his linguistic 
repertoire. 



42 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

It is an Eastern trait to be enthusiastic and extrava- 
gantly inclined in starting new designs, and often quite 
inadequate when it comes to executing them. A suc- 
cessful East Indian business man of Calcutta who has 
been knighted for his accomplishments by the British 
Government, told me that the secret of his success was 
in thinking up his big plans and securing the best 
Europeans he could hire to help him execute them. 
"The Easterner," said he, "has talent and imagination 
but his training has left him poor in persistence and the 
dogged ability to carry through his schemes." 

It is somewhat thus with the South American. He 
is intellectual, idealistic and also brave, but ineffective 
frequently in effort. Some have expressed doubt 
whether or not the Latin American was a misfit in a 
continent calling for large and continuous industrial 
and scientific effort. It seems certain that with all the 
exhilarating vigour, the passionate impulsiveness, the 
fury of life evidenced in their dancing, their pleasure 
seeking and rapid movements, the Latin American 
seems to lack perpetual action as a background and 
support for his energy. Ganivet, the Spanish critic, 
once said that his countrymen were afflicted with a 
disease which he called "aboulia" — lack of will power 
— and Mr. Havelock Ellis in his "The Soul of Spain," 
quoting from another Spanish man of letters, says: 

"This capricious and facile expenditure of energy, 
Macias Picavea traces in the form of two original de- 
fects of character; an original defect in the predomi- 
nance of passion over will, an original moral defect in 
the substitution of the principle of justice by the socially 
inadequate sentiment of friendship and affection. By 



THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN 43 

the first defect he accounts for the Spanish tendency to 
live in the present and put off every inconvenient task 
to a remote mafiana, the impulse to convert life into a 
lottery, the subjectivism that is content with imaginary 
possibilities in place of solid and prudent motives. 

"The second quality is the source of the administra- 
tive immorality of Spain, which consists, not so much 
in venality or theft, as in the domestic and neighbourly 
feeling which is always inclined to favour a friend be- 
cause he is a friend, and which erects impunity almost 
into a law." 

I am inclined to think this particular Spaniard was 
a bit of a wailer and deplorer by nature; nevertheless, 
this tendency of the Latin-minded Spanish American 
to be abnormally devoted to his family, his friend and 
his guest, at the expense of the world outside has pro- 
duced almost unawares an anti-social tendency in these 
republics. South America is not a region known for 
its social movements, and apart from what is done by 
the charities of the Catholic Church, the country as 
a whole is poor in activities aimed at the betterment of 
society as such. In this also the South American is 
as unlike the North American with his multitudinous 
"causes" and movements for social betterment, as he 
is like the Oriental in his emphasis upon individualism 
and family devotion. 

The Indians of the Andean section, for example, 
have been left for generations to degenerate into beasts 
of burden, feeding on the coca leaves that leave them 
more helpless still, virtually without schools or amelio- 
rating agencies to soften the laborious drudgery of 
their lives passed in mines where they labour almost as 
slaves for the white man, or eke out a bare existence 



44 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

on the barren sides of the cheerless Cordilleras. There 
are, to be sure, no such signs of poverty in South Amer- 
ican cities as one finds in many places in the Orient; 
but as long as compulsory education is such a farce as 
it is in many a South American republic, and as long as 
vast populations of Indians are left to their abject ig- 
norance and savagery in some parts, so long as the ne- 
gro and the cholo are living in a primitive periphery 
of poverty and mud huts about many of the cities, this 
anti-social characteristic will naturally be laid at the 
door of the Latin Americans. 

Isolation from the world at large was the cause of 
the stoppage and stagnation of many an Oriental land. 
It has been also the secret of many of the evils in these 
Latin republics. For centuries the Spaniards, notably 
Philip II, did their best to isolate and keep close-locked 
for themselves Spanish America; the kings of Portugal 
likewise kept closed the ports of Brazil as long as their 
power over this vast region existed. 

It has been only in comparatively recent times that 
the South American nations have been in contact with 
the wider world of trade and thought. Until recently 
it took 37 days for a letter from New York to reach the 
city of Valparaiso, on its dilatory journey in small 
coastal steamers that stop and loiter along the West 
Coast. The opening of the Panama Canal has been a 
liberator par excellence for western South America, but 
its full results are not yet evidenced. 

South America has still to learn the lesson Japan 
learned so quickly when she finally opened her small 
nation to the four winds and scattered her students 
and seekers for modern light across the world. These 



THE ORIENTAL SOUTH AMERICAN 45 

republics are still too proud of themselves, and at times 
too conservative to "polish their gems with stones 
brought from the ends of the earth." 

Pan Americanism is still too much a paper idealism 
to satisfy its most keen and ardent supporters and pro- 
moters. Like the East, this part of the world is too 
much inclined to be suspicious of advance, and to be 
satisfied with the ways of their fathers, simply because 
these were their fathers' ways and for no other osten- 
sible reason. 

I asked farmers in the wastes of Peru and Chile why 
they continued to plough with crooked sticks, and live 
in mud walls, and their answer was identical with that 
I have heard repeatedly from the lips of East Indians 
and Chinese cultivators in the inland parts of the Far 
East — "What was good enough for our fathers is good 
enough for us." 

The great war will end some of this isolation, it is 
already bringing Brazil especially into touch with the 
great movements of the wide world in a way to assure 
in the future a progress of unlimited extent. Other 
republics cannot long hold back. The tide of mod- 
ernity is beginning to flow stronger than ever before in 
most of the twenty Latin American states. Brazil and 
Argentina and Uruguay especially are the Japans of 
progress and leadership of Latin America, and as the 
Sunrise Kingdom set the whole Orient astir and throb- 
bing with renewed life, so these advancing states with 
their men of culture and keenness for commerce and 
world contacts, will lead the way of Southern America 
out of medievalism and that Orientalism which hin- 
dered rather than helped. 



46 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

South America will always bear marks of the East- 
ern temperament. It will be good for her and for us 
that she does retain certain of the traits that we in the 
clear, hard, crystal, business-mad North need and may 
well emulate. The isolation and the unsocial habits 
will go, and in their place will come by some agencies, 
native or foreign, industries and reforms of political 
and social institutions, such as will make South Amer- 
ica, not only "safe for democracy," but one of the fair- 
est and most fruitful gardens of the earth. 



CHAPTER III 

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 

We have distrusted, however, because back of all the lines 
of navigation, the industries and the contracts with the state, 
we have discerned an absorbing, dominating policy, which de- 
sired to subject the country to its exclusive influence, which 
sought to Prussianise it, forgetful of its character, its tradition, 
the genius of its race and its well-established prerogatives of 
nationality. — Senor Carlos Silva Vildosola (for many 
years director of "El Mercurio," the leading newspaper of 
Santiago). 

THE influence of Germany in South America has 
been called a "penetration." The word was 
well chosen, for there is scarcely a realm of life 
connected with these republics which has been free 
from a more or less systematised plan on the part of 
the Germans to get a firm foothold, and to make pre- 
dominant there things and thought "made in Ger- 
many." 

By sending his German professors and teachers, the 
Teuton has endeavoured to impregnate the youth and 
the school systems of the republics with the method 
used in Germany. By a thorough training of her trad- 
ers and manufacturers, even before they left their 
own land, the attempt has been made to suit Latin 
American conditions in the matter of language, cred- 
its, packing and kind of articles needed. The German 

47 



48 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

officers who have trained the military in a number of 
the republics have made a deep impression upon the 
army contingents of these South American nations, and 
in dress and deportment, as well as in arms made in 
Germany, the soldiers of such countries as Chile, for 
example, might almost be mistaken for Germans — 
caps, capes, moustaches et al. In this latter country es- 
pecially, where there is a strong native inclination for 
fighting, the German military propaganda has been 
more influential than the professorial mission, and only 
through the later developments of the war has the en- 
thusiasm been lessened for German types of militarism. 

The founding of German colonies in South America 
has also entered into the German scheme at penetra- 
tion. The three hundred thousand or more Germans 
settled in the temperate climate of South Brazil, and the 
large German settlement in the region of Valdivia, in 
Southern Chile, are two notable cases in point, where 
the German ambition has been toward permanent hold- 
ings in a new German Empire in South America. In 
such sections as these, I have visited schools which to 
outward appearance of teachers and curriculum, might 
have been in Hamburg or Berlin. In certain of the 
towns in Santa Catharina, Parana, or Rio Grande do 
Sul — Joinville, for instance — I was told by responsible 
people that it was really difficult for any person who 
did not speak German to get work in the community. 

Commerce has been the particular avenue through 
which the German has endeavoured to penetrate Latin 
America, and in this realm his progress, especially in 
the last forty years, has been remarkable. He has 
established large banks in the cities and larger towns ; 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 49 

he has founded business houses directly in touch with 
his homeland, and evidently under close supervision and 
surveillance of the German government; he has imi- 
tated and manufactured at low cost almost every na- 
tive product the South Americans desire or use; he has 
built hotels and restaurants in replica of those found 
in Germany, and it has been clear that no detail like 
clubs, newspapers, literature and social organisations 
pleasing to the Teutonic mind and habits, has been 
omitted in order that the coloniser and trader might 
duplicate as far as possible fatherland environment. 

At the opening of the war, the German commerce 
throughout South America had reached such flourish- 
ing proportions that even Great Britain, the arch 
trader of the world, with all of her long-time hold on 
the trade of Latin America, found some difficulty in 
keeping her lead in the matter of South American 
business, while the relation of the exports from the 
United States and Germany were in the ratio of seven 
per cent to twenty-five per cent in Germany's favour. 

In every way conceivable, the Teutons sought to in- 
gratiate themselves into South American favour. 
They did as the Romans did, revealed a studied po- 
liteness in bows, handshaking and hat-lifting, learned 
to use excellent Spanish and Portuguese, flattered and 
fawned where it seemed to their advantage to do so, 
and even intermarried with the native peoples, being 
careful to exhibit at least a show of loyalty to South 
American governments and institutions. 

No privations were too great to be undergone for 
the sake of winning trade and prestige. The trav- 
eller is surprised to find the German in such isolated 



50 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

countries as Bolivia, where he has gone Germanising 
fourteen thousand feet above the sea. To this moun- 
tain republic, Germany sent a few years ago a com- 
mittee of experts to study the market even to the most 
insignificant details, taking back to Germany complete 
sets of samples of every article that it was possible to 
imitate and send to these out-of-the-way populations. 
As a result, if one goes to a shop in the Andean region 
to purchase a poncho, that picturesque blanket that 
every Indian or cholo of the lofty Cordilleras wears 
in place of an overcoat, he will need to be a close stu- 
dent of such articles to distinguish a poncho, made by 
the Indians, and one manufactured and dyed to suit 
the taste, but exported from Germany. 

Other Indian products have been treated in the same 
way, and if one is privileged to attend the great Fair 
in January held at La Paz — the "Alacitas" — where 
much pride has been shown heretofore in the exhibi- 
tion of innumerable native articles, he will find the 
people carefully examining the products to detect imi- 
tations of native skill, since the majority of them have 
been made at short notice by the alert German manu- 
facturer. It is commonly reported in South Amer- 
ica that these German-made imitations are fine to look 
at, and resemble so closely the original native articles 
that one can scarcely note the difference ; but the qual- 
ity of the manufacture is said to be inferior in most 
cases, the things being made to sell, and with little fur- 
ther premeditation. One South American in buying a 
German sewing machine informed me that he knew 
he would be obliged to get another machine within the 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 51 

year, but the low price suited his pocketbook for the 
time being. 

I found that in this section the German manufacturer 
would make changes in his exported products, and 
often without additional charge beyond the price sub- 
mitted with the samples. If the South American mer- 
chant asks for a red shirt in a purple box, he is sold a 
red shirt in a purple box. The German does not tell 
him that he makes only blue shirts and incloses them in 
green boxes. He caters to his client's taste in every 
respect. Furthermore, if a German once gets a client, 
he will go to all possible lengths to hold him, although 
in many lines, especially in hardware on the West 
Coast, farming machinery and mining tools, it is a well- 
known fact that the American goods are superior to 
those of German manufacture. 

Another hold the Teuton has upon trade in the 
mountain states is due to the fact that, in addition to 
extended credits and the adaptation of goods, he has 
made himself thoroughly familiar with the somewhat 
unique methods of transportation in these sections. 

Bolivia, for example, is an interior country having 
no seaport, and secures her supplies through the far 
away ports of Mollendo, Peru, or Arica and Antofa- 
gasta in Chile. From these points, imports must be 
hauled over the Andes, at times on rack railroads, 
sometimes over five or six hundred miles of thirty- 
inch gauge and over very steep grades ; in other cases 
the goods are shipped on boats across Lake Titicaca. 
These trans-shipments need to be borne in mind by 
the shipper, as the products are submitted to the rough- 
est of handling, from steamships to lighters in open 



m UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

roadsteads, thence to railroads, and inland steamers, 
and often in parts of their progress by llama and 
mule back, with all the consequent handling, loading 
and unloading from animals on long trails when they 
are stopped for rest. 

Such details as the size of packages are extremely 
important since a llama, for instance, will carry a 
weight up to one hundred pounds, but beyond that bur- 
den he is particularly sensitive, and literally lies down 
and forcibly objects. This matter has been scrupu- 
lously considered by the German manufacturer, adjust- 
ing the weight of the cases so that the trans-shipper 
can tell at once the best means to be employed for 
sending the goods into the country districts. The 
packing cases are made of the best quality of wood to 
stand the treatment, and in many instances as I no- 
ticed, they were reinforced at the corners with slats of 
the same thickness as the boards of the boxes. An 
obstreperous llama may roll down a hill, but the goods 
will not be scattered over the surrounding country, as 
I have at times seen American products decorating the 
bleak slopes of the Andes. 

A Chilean importer told me that he had discovered 
for several years certain of the American shirts and 
socks shipped to him from the United States, adorn- 
ing the persons of the flotilla men who had appropri- 
ated them when the boxes from the "States" popped 
open as they landed in their lighters. 

The Bolivian and Peruvian markets in the high 
mountain regions, because of the rich mineral and land 
wealth of this sequestered region, are sure to be increas- 
ingly important. Germany has seen that the people 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 53 

here want merchandise of the cheapest make, and that 
the poorer classes (for the most part agriculturists and 
miners) buy eighty per cent of the total imports of the 
republic. To this constituency the best expert thought 
has been given, with results that have placed German 
products generally in the hands of the people. 

In Chile, German propaganda in various lines has 
made great headway during recent years. 

As I sailed into the picturesque harbour of Val- 
paraiso, I was impressed with the large number of 
ships on all sides. I remarked to the captain of our 
boat that I had no idea Valparaiso was such a vast 
shipping port. The captain smiled and said, "It isn't. 
Those thirty ships that you see about us are all in- 
terned German vessels. The crews evidently thought 
that this was one of the most favourable ports in South 
America in which to get stranded. They are here for 
the simple reason that they can't get away." 

I noted, in this German merchant marine fleet, six- 
teen sailing ships reminding one that the old days of 
the clipper ships were still in vogue. These ships had 
about half-crews, and the men who have lain on them 
now for nearly three years, do not give the impres- 
sion that they enjoy the enforced vacation. One large 
importer told me how he had been invited to go on 
board one of the largest of these German vessels, where 
he saw a fine oump which he coveted for his own use 
on shore. 

"I'll give you seven pounds for that pump," said the 
importer to the German captain. 

The captain was indignant and fumed, "Why, that 



54 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

pump cost twenty pounds, and furthermore, do you 
think I would sell any apparatus connected with my 
ship?" 

"You would be a fool, if you didn't," returned the 
importer, "since you know that this ship will never leave 
this harbour under your flag. You had better sell all 
of the furniture you can, while the selling is good." 

The bulky German nearly exploded in his patriotic 
wrath; nevertheless, two days later, the importer re- 
ceived the pump. 

The Germans in Chile are connected with the Val- 
divia colony founded in the middle of the nineteenth 
century in the fruitful section of southern Chile, or 
are the Germans who have been called in to train the 
soldiery; or they are teachers and business men. The 
Valdivia Germans are the sons of old Germany who 
left their land in that political and economic crisis when 
the older idealism of that nation was exchanged for 
the military ambitions of modern Prussia. These peo- 
ple do not belong to the modern penetration move- 
ment, and live peaceably and industrially as farmers 
chiefly, partially allying themselves with the native 
people in a free land. 

During the last thirty years the German movement 
has depended particularly upon the Teuton professors 
sent to Chile under contract with the Chilean govern- 
ment, and the German military officers whom Gen- 
eral Korner, a German ex-captain, engaged as instruct- 
ors for the army. This German captain, Korner, by 
reasons of his connection with the country's civil war 
of 1 891, became almost an arbiter of Chilean military 
institutions. 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 55 

In the wake of these pioneer propagandists for Ger- 
many, came a new diplomacy, a fresh inflow of capital 
from across the seas, German banks and industries, to- 
gether with large firms for doing business on an in* 
creased scale. As one Chilean describes the condi- 
tion: "the interest which the Prussian Emperor, the 
government and the people of Germany felt in Chile 
was proclaimed with all formality." 

The militarists were more effective for the German 
penetration than were the teachers, since the militant 
Catholics combatted the teachers as a peril to national 
religious unity. Popular sentiment was reflected in the 
campaign waged quite strenuously in the press by one 
of Chile's well known poets, against the German pro- 
fessors, accusing the authorities who were responsible 
for engaging German instructors of being infected with 
"German enchantment." 

The avenue to Chilean conquest was easier for the 
Germans by the way of the military, the Chilean be- 
ing predisposed to such matters, a fact not overlooked 
by the Teutons. The army system was Prussianised 
as one might say over night, with little regard for ad- 
justments fitted to the Republic. Sefior Vildosola, 
whom I have already quoted, writes: 

"The Prussian regulations were translated and ap- 
plied, the military life was changed to its foundations, 
and it was all done with an unheard of precipitancy, 
without ascertaining if it was best or not for the coun- 
try, by means of copying mechanically. 

"On a certain good day the Chileans beheld their 
soldiers uniformed in Prussian tunics, with green, red 
and yellow borders, with many adornments and much 



56 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

gold braid, dark heads covered with helmets terminat- 
ing in a point, file past with that parade step which 
caricature has made known throughout the world. 

"This exact reproduction of the regulations, the 
methods, the uniforms and even the utensils for the 
use of the army facilitated the other aspect of the re- 
form, which consisted in the acquirement by the gov- 
ernment of Chile, in Germany, of whatever might be 
necessary for the army, from the Krupp cannon and 
Mauser rifles, to the shoes for the horses and the cloth 
of divers colours with which the soldiers should clothe 
themselves according to the Prussian usage and tradi- 
tion." 

Naturally there was protest on the part of the Chile- 
ans. A band of famous Chilean generals was retired, 
because they censured this rapid manner of German- 
ising Chile. Later, the nation rose more generally 
against the high-handed measures of these military and 
political and commercial agents of Germany. A noted 
professor who was found too insolent was returned to 
Germany. An undesirable German engineer, who had 
been given supervision of the railways, was sent home, 
and gradually the nation became aware of the differ- 
ence between Prussian methods and those of a repub- 
lic. In spite of all the German effort, it is safe to say, 
in the words of a Chilean, "the Germans have never 
been able to penetrate the Chilean soul." 

Here, as in Brazil, there arose a racial distrust of 
the German. Their conscious superiority, their in- 
solent pride at times, and a lack of sufficient imagina- 
tion to fit themselves sympathetically to the Latin tem- 
perament, did not augur well for the final subjugation 
of South American peoples by Germany, even before 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 57 1 

the European war opened. With the opening of the 
war, the latent love for France sprang up, and the con- 
duct of the German raiders of commerce, together 
with such events as the treatment of Belgium, the sink- 
ing of the Lusitania, and the general policy of the 
Prussians in waging war, were further proofs to the 
Chileans, as they were to the South Americans gen- 
erally, that Germany was not inherently "simpatico" 
with Latin America. It seemed to be a popular in- 
stinct wherever I went in these countries, outside of the 
German circles themselves, that South America should 
be pro-ally. 

There was also a growing feeling in Chile, even be- 
fore the breaking out of the war, that European na- 
tions did not understand that country, and the national 
pride was frequently hurt by slighting allusions to Chile- 
ans as fit topics for comic opera and fun-making. 
There seemed to be a tendency for the sturdy de- 
scendants of the Araucanians, to draw within them- 
selves and retain the isolation which their peculiar- 
shaped land had given them geographically. There is 
no doubt that the sentiment toward the United States, 
which has not always been the best in Chile, is improv* 
ing in late years, and the part we are taking in the war 
has certainly increased the favourable feeling of Chile, 
ans toward us. 

When I arrived in Chile the British "black list" had 
just been put into operation, and there was consider- 
able complaint among all classes, particularly Germans. 
It was observed with strictness from the start, for Eng- 
lish, Irish and Scotch influence comprise much foreign 
power here, the Britishers being connected with the old 



58 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Chilean families, both by ties of marriage, and also by 
reason of many services rendered the country by sea- 
men, statesmen and traders. 

I was walking on the street of Santiago one day with 
an Englishman and was about to take him into a res- 
taurant for lunch, when he stopped short at the sign 
over the door — "German! — Nothing doing for me!" 
my British friend exclaimed, and drew away. At that 
time this discrimination against the German and his 
works seemed a bit childish to me and to many Chile- 
ans, I am sure, but later acquaintance with the foe of 
nearly the whole civilised world has changed opinion 
greatly. The reasons are too patent to need enum- 
eration here. When a quiet lover of peace and na- 
ture like John Burroughs appears in print with the 
signed resolve that he will never again look into a mod- 
ern German book, it is small wonder to find the Chilean 
point of view changing with that of other nations which 
have tried in vain to feel and act with neutrality. 

I would not give the impression that Chile was then, 
or in fact is at present, ready to take up arms on the 
side of the Allies and use her 200,000 soldiers, German 
trained, to fight down the Boche. Here, as in every 
South American state, the Prussian emissaries were 
busy from the very opening of the war, using the press 
of Chile when they could, and especially the pro- 
German, conservative and clerical organ, La Union, 
to distribute among the people a one-sided view of 
affairs in Europe. 

The army, too, was a centre in which the Germans 
practiced all kinds of depredations upon Chilean neu- 
trality. German agents established a newspaper and 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 59 

called it La Gaceta Militar, with the design to carry 
the idea outside Chile that this was the mouthpiece of 
the Chilean army. Two Spaniards were placed in 
charge of this propaganda, and it soon became neces- 
sary for Chile to make known widely the true nature 
of this sheet, disavowing that it represented in any 
sense the beliefs or the convictions of the military au- 
thorities. 

At first, the press in general was neutral and colour- 
less in its presentations, but as the paralysing of Chilean 
commerce grew apace, and as the raids of German war 
vessels along the coasts of Chile and South America 
began to disarrange the sailings of the British merchant 
marine upon which Chile was now largely dependent 
for her commerce, there was a noticeable change of 
tone. No one knew better than these people that the 
long unprotected Chilean coast, a stretch of 2,485 miles, 
with its maze of passages, small islands and deserted 
regions in the south, was a first class hiding place for 
German raiders which obtained their coal supplies from 
Chile by some kind of connivance, contrary of course 
to all known neutrality laws. When, therefore, the 
British squadron destroyed the German cruisers in the 
naval battle off the Falkland Islands and Juan Fernan- 
dez, Chile breathed a sigh of relief, and her commerce 
began again. 

From that time the German propagandists spoke in 
lower tones. The convictions of the people, even 
though not always expressed openly, leaned decidedly 
toward the realisation that two great principles of civ- 
ilisation were held up for choice — the rights of men and 



60 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

of nations on the one hand, and the subjection by force 
of military power as the other alternative. 

Whatever the Chileans may see fit to do about 
aligning themselves alongside Brazil, the United States 
and the other South and Central American republics 
against the enemy of liberties of small nations, it may 
be taken for granted that the mass of public opinion 
in this vigorous state is in line with the following strik- 
ing testimony given not long ago by one of the most 
able Chilean exponents of the press in that republic : — 

"The most of the people of Chile recognise that 
there are judicial reasons in the interests of civilisa- 
tion and humanity, in the defense of the constituent 
principles of all democracies, and in order to save from 
destruction the Latin civilisation to which we belong, 
for desiring the triumph of the Allies, and the suppres- 
sion of German militarism." 

The witness for the Chileans then proceeds to say in 
a notable summary of the reasons why we are engaged 
in this world-wide combat: — 

"A consensus has been reached regarding certain 
fundamental points that may be summed up in the fol- 
lowing manner : 

"i. That Germany provoked this war when it 
suited her, after having prepared her people during a 
labour of forty years, by means of an education and 
organisation whose only object was to attack Europe 
for the purpose of conquest. 

2. That a mentality like hers, capable of subjecting 
an entire nation with a view to aggression and con- 
quest, is opposed to modern ideas of liberty, human 
fraternity and moral progress. 

3. That the triumph of a nation that proclaims mili- 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 61 

tary necessity as a sufficient reason for violating treat- 
ies, in which might is set up as the only source of au- 
thority, in which their essential liberties are denied to 
nations, would be the greatest peril that could be en- 
countered by modern 'democracies and all those prin- 
ciples upon which American independence was estab- 
lished. 

4. That all the methods heralded by German writ- 
ers, sanctioned in their military regulations and applied 
to the war, are contrary to the notions of humanity 
which Christianity diffused through the world, and do 
violence to the engagements entered into by civilised 
peoples to remove the elements of useless and barbar- 
ous cruelty of the primitive ages. 

5. That there exists at the heart of this struggle a 
conflict between the two philosophical and political 
tendencies that have disputed for the domination of 
peoples and the inspirations of their movements : one 
based upon right and the other upon force; one upon 
liberty and the other upon subjection; one upon fra- 
ternity and the other upon hatred cultivated as a sa- 
cred and almost mystical principle." 

Such a pronouncement of opinion, in accord we be- 
lieve with the inner sentiment of the Latin Americans 
generally (excepting Germans themselves and their in- 
timate Germanophile satellites), on the West Coast as 
well as in Chile, cannot be especially flattering to either 
the method or discernment of German propaganda in 
these sections. Perhaps it was not wholly the fault of 
the Teuton spies and press-agents. They had a dram- 
atis personae to advertise and explain that would have 
taxed the brains and ingenuity of a greater race than 
the Germans, not noted for imaginative perspective or 
humour; the villainous German elements in this world 
tragedy overbear all palliative explanation. The al- 



62 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

most constant fracture of all known principles of hu- 
manity and civilisation which the most advanced races 
have known and been guided by in the past, have given 
Germany's most sympathetic adherents in the Amer- 
icas a melancholy "quarter of an hour." 

When we come to the conditions of things German 
on the East Coast of South America, the attitude of 
the people toward the Teuton propaganda has been 
revealed in the decision of Brazil to break her neu- 
trality because of the wrongs done to her shipping and 
the strong sentiment of the Brazilians relative to the 
justice of the Allied cause. 

I was in Brazil immediately before the declaration 
of war of the United States against Germany. There 
was then a decided nervousness and feeling of distrust 
of the Germans on the part of the inhabitants. Re- 
peatedly one could hear the phrase the "German men- 
ace" — and by these words the people referred to the 
fact that the German colonies of Santa Catharina, 
Parana and Rio Grande do Sul especially, where the 
German language was freely spoken and German 
thought and institutions were well established, were 
not in keeping with the ideas of a republican nation. 

"Every one of the thousands of Germans in South 
Brazil is a trained soldier, and these people seem at 
heart as loyal to the Kaiser as when they were in Ger- 
many," said a prominent public official of Brazil. "In 
spite of the fact that the Germans," continued this high 
authority, "have given us credits and adapted them- 
selves in a superficial way to our modes of doing busi- 
ness, we don't like the Germans here in Brazil. Their 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 63 

spying and methods of dealing in war times have made 
the people suspicious." 

The German ships interned in Brazilian ports were 
being closely watched. The British "Black List" was 
keeping the issues of war prominently before the busi- 
ness community, and though the German business 
agents had been carrying on a flourishing trade with 
Teuton firms in the United States, the handicap of this 
black listing of things German was evidently very gen- 
eral and tended to weaken the German commerce and 
regular transactions. This branding of the houses and 
banks of Germany in Brazil, as all along the East 
Coast affected American concerns and was especially 
felt in shipping lines — a fact which Germans were mak- 
ing the most of in the attempt to array the foreigners 
as well as the native inhabitants against the Allies. 

The press gave large space to war telegrams, and 
the people were well served with the news from the 
different fronts of the war. No one could travel over 
Brazil in these days without realising the growing 
tenseness of the commercial situation, and the sym- 
pathy for the Allied cause was apparent among the 
leading men in almost all walks of life. 

When the Lusitania was sunk, a vote immediately 
was passed in one of the most prominent clubs fre- 
quented by foreigners in the Federal Capital of Rio de 
Janeiro, asking the resignations of all Germans and 
Austrians. Frequent rumours of German raiders 
along the East Coast accounted for the presence at 
times of warships of the Allied forces. The riots 
which occurred a little later in South Brazil, and which 
were speedily taken in hand and quelled by Brazilian 



64 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

troops increased the suspicions of the Brazilians as to 
the loyalty of the large German colonist population. 
Rifle companies and squads of young men, members 
of commercial firms, marching and drilling called forth 
great crowds and much patriotic enthusiasm. 

It was heard repeatedly that the plan of Germany 
to found in Southern Brazil a German South Amer- 
ican Empire, choosing therefor one of the richest gar- 
den spots of the earth, must be frustrated by Brazil- 
ians. No one can appreciate until he has travelled 
through this rich agricultural section comprising the 
vast areas of Parana, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande 
do Sul, how strategic and well founded was this Ger- 
man dream. It is a territory with a temperate climate 
not unlike that of Central Europe, the developing cat- 
tle land where upwards of 20,000,000 cattle are even 
now grazing on these rolling prairies, lands capable 
of raising virtually every known product of the tem- 
perate zone; and valleys by the sea where mate, coffee, 
bananas, and many tropical fruits find their home 
below the higher regions of waving corn-fields. It 
is also a prolific lumber section, the home of Parana 
pine, and varied kinds of valuable Brazilian woods, 
which are being exported to Uruguay, Argentina and 
other South American republics which are poor in 
timber. 

This wide reaching and hitherto only sparsely de- 
veloped region, as large as a dozen of our western 
states combined, contains resources sufficient to main- 
tain with abundant provision the entire European na- 
tions lying about the Mediterranean Sea. Such ac- 
quisition would have been many-fold more valuable to 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 65 

Germany than all her colonies, and in fact would hold 
the promise of being even a greater Germany across the 
seas, as Brazil has become a greater Portugal, and as 
the United States, by reason of her great territory and 
industrial development, gives the earnest of future 
agricultural and industrial possibilities surpassing any- 
thing to which her English mother country is capable. 

The general favourable sentiment of the Brazilians 
toward the United States was placed on record when 
the northern republic declared war against Germany. 
From that moment the war sentiment in Brazil grew 
with great rapidity. Brazil's speedy decision, her pro- 
gressive plan in connection with guarding the South 
Atlantic coasts, thus relieving ships of the Allies for 
other service, her military aims set in motion for the 
enlargement of her army [so decisive as to arouse par- 
ticular notice from Argentina, especially, where it has 
been suggested that Brazil's war measures are greater 
than is necessary for keeping under control three hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants of German descent] — all 
this is indicative of the strong feeling expressed to me 
recently by a prominent Brazilian — "Never again will 
the Germans gain a foothold in Brazil." 

In Argentina, where pro-German sentiment has been 
stronger among certain of the influential people of 
the country, the issues have been somewhat more com- 
plicated. German propaganda has been doing its best 
here to keep its grasp on one of the largest and rich- 
est lands of Southern America. Here, too, for 
some reason the President of the republic seems to 
have been playing into German hands. I have been 
told by reputable Argentinos that President Irogyan is 



66 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

not so much pro-German as radical and wilful, and 
that it was only a question of time when this repub- 
lic of the River Plate would also join the forces of free 
states which are battling against German militarism. 

Anyhow Germany has given this nation sufficient 
cause to act, and if the present indications are at all 
meaningful or filled with omens for the future, the 
mass of the population is ready and eager for some- 
thing definitely in line with an open break with Ger- 
many. 

The Argentine press freely stated that there had 
never been seen in Buenos Aires such a manifestation 
of public sentiment and patriotism as followed the Lux- 
burg expose, when more than 200,000 of the leading 
citizens of the republic marched through the streets of 
the Capital, with bands and banners and cries for war 
against Germany. Senators left the senate halls to 
join in the procession, and united with a commission 
of deputies and senators from Uruguay, who had come 
down to bring to their neighbour republic the sym- 
pathy and the wish of the Uruguayan people for a rup- 
ture with Germany. 

One of the features of the demonstration was a 
flag, 230 feet long and wide as the streets through 
which it was borne by 200 men; and behind this huge 
ensign there were carried 300 large Argentine flags 
and 100 flags of Uruguay. Those who heard the songs 
of the multitude of marchers, national patriotic songs 
mixed freely with the battle hymns of the Allies, or 
heard the jeers for the German government on this 
occasion, would be left in small doubt as to the popular 
attitude toward Germany. One of the ensigns borne 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 67 

in this procession read: "No more German spies, 
traitors and assassins!" 

The demonstrations of good will made before the 
British and American Legation and Embassy, the or- 
der preserved, and the character of the speeches all 
served to put Argentina on record as decidedly opposed 
to the methods with which Germany is carrying on the 
war. It would seem difficult to think of the govern- 
ment of Argentina withstanding long such evident de- 
sires of the people as this recent demonstration re- 
vealed. 

German friends in Latin America seem to be dimin- 
ishing. As it stands at present, four of these na- 
tions have declared war on Germany — Cuba, Panama, 
Nicaragua, and Brazil. Seven countries have broken 
off relations with Germany, in the following order of 
procedure : — Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Hayti, 
Honduras, Peru and Uruguay. Chile revoked her neu- 
trality last June, and the will of the people of Argen- 
tina has been plainly shown. 

Among the professedly neutral countries are in- 
cluded Ecuador, Paraguay, Salvador, and technically 
Argentina, also Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico. Of 
these three latter countries, Colombia is said to be in- 
fluenced by doubtful feelings towards the United States 
rather than by any sympathy with Germany ; Venezuela, 
the only autocracy left in the Americas, is ruled by 
General Juan Vicente Gomez, who is thought to be 
friendly with Germany, and Mexico is still too busily 
engaged with her own domestic problems and the dis- 
tractions of recent warfare to be a certain quantity on 
either side. 



68 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Despite this seemingly growing antipathy to Ger- 
many and her plans in Latin America, the fact must be 
kept in mind that this idea of Prussianising a large 
portion of the southern western hemisphere has been 
one of Germany's great dreams and ambitions. 

The American Defense Society has published a 
pamphlet in which Mr. W. H. Gardiner, an American 
engineer, has gathered and exposed the gist of vari- 
ous writings presented chiefly in 19 15 by Teuton bibli- 
ographers, statesmen and professors relative to the 
ambitious projects of a victorious Germany in the 
Americas. "These plans are so amazingly ambitious," 
says Mr. Gardiner, "and are founded on such an ut- 
terly cynical and ruthless disregard of the rights and 
liberties of all non-Germans that for the first ten or 
twelve years those men who first caught their sinister 
trend were discredited." 

A brief summary of these plans of Prussian con- 
quest as given by Mr. Gardiner, may be pondered with 
advantage at this time by those who are interested to 
know about the Germanising of South America : 

"The lower half of South America Prussia planned 
to acquire by peaceful penetration, revolution and 
political intrigue. 

"As to the progress made to date on these lines, note 
that in the very small section of Brazil south of Tropic 
of Capricorn there are now over 400,000 native-born 
Germans and that native-born Germans are largely in 
control of the finances and commerce of Chile and 
Argentina; note that since 19 16 there has been a Ger- 
man rebellion in Southern Brazil; and also note the 
equivocal positions of the Government of Chile and 
Argentina at the same time. 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 69 

"Realising the overwhelming prestige which the 
complete accomplishment of her plans in Africa and 
Asia would give her, Prussia believed that Venezuela, 
Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, and possibly Colombia, 
would come under her sway by whatever combination 
of a peaceful penetration, rebellion, and political cor- 
ruption might be called for. 

"In holding this opinion the Prussian autocrats real- 
ise the high degree of commercial and political pene- 
tration now actually accomplished in these countries. 

"In passing it is worth noting that in his 'War,' pub- 
lished in 1906, Klaus Wagner suggests (p. 170), that 
the 'inefficient' non-German population of South 
America be exported by Germany to reservations in 
Africa, 'where they may crawl slowly toward the peace* 
ful death of weary and hopeless senility.' 

"As an index, sufficient for the moment, of the con* 
trol Prussia thought she had over Mexico, and inci- 
dentally over Central America, note the terse proposal 
Herr Zimmermann made to Mexico that she attack 
the United States and that she, as the agent of Ger- 
many, get Japan to join her in the attack. 

"On the 25th of May, 19 17, Secretary Franklin K. 
Lane said that Germany 'would certainly demand from 
an overwhelmed England, Canada on the north by way 
of indemnity.' And he might well have added Ber- 
muda on the east and all the British West Indies on the 
south, none of which have the means or facilities to 
conduct a successful modern defence without outside 
assistance. 

"To the Teutonic mind this plan for an actual world 
dominion was as axiomatic as that two and two make 
four; — provided France could be crushed, Russia 
eliminated and then Great Britain crushed." 



A few years ago the very statement of such wild 
ambitions would have seemed like the vapourings of 



70 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

one who dreams. But as almost every passing month 
since the beginning of the European war has revealed 
some new and incredible indication of Prussian ruth- 
lessness and underhanded diplomacy and intrigue, such 
plain narration of German aims on this continent is 
worthy of careful thought. 

Two things are inevitably certain regarding the Ger- 
man penetration and conquest in Latin America. First, 
it never will happen as long as Great Britain, France 
and the United States retain any power or influence to 
object, and second, even if these three great powers 
were rendered impotent [a thought as fantastic as are 
the German dreams of dominion] Latin America with 
its 70,000,000 or more of indigenous and partially in- 
digenous races is too large and too distinctly Latin 
either to be colonised by Germans or to be assimilated 
with peoples whose ideas and ideals are so radically 
antipodal to their own. 

Furthermore, whatever advantage Germany has 
gained in the past thirty years in South America by 
reason of her trade and well-laid schemes, is being di- 
minished daily at present by her own acts and her 
bungling, thick-witted diplomacy and propaganda. 
There is no doubt of the German ambitions in this 
section. There is also no doubt of her great influence, 
financial and industrial, there. But the eyes of the 
southern Americans are being opened wide to the facts, 
and no nations on earth are more jealous of their na- 
tional rights and territories than are the people of 
these Latin American lands. Prussia has thus become 
unwittingly the best servant that a real Pan-American- 



THE GERMANS IN SOUTH AMERICA 71 

ism has ever possessed. The Monroe Doctrine is no 
longer a mere political paper shibboleth. It is a tie to 
bind together in mutual safety and progress the free 
Americas. 



CHAPTER IV 

BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA 

Nearly every intelligent Peruvian and Ecuadorian with 
whom one talks believes firmly and enthusiastically that, with 
the opening of the Panama Canal, his country is going to start 
out on an era of great commercial prosperity. 

Hiram Bingham. 

ON the coat of arms of the Republic of Panama one 
reads: "The repudiation of war and homage to 
the arts which flourish in peace and in labour." 

Over the section called "The Canal Zone" there 
also floats an ensign reading, "The Land Divided, The 
World United." 

The possibilities of mankind, commercial and moral, 
that He wrapped up in these ideals are tremendous. 
The Canal will cost the United States $400,000,000 in 
gold; the results will be returned not in money only 
but in the opportunity rarely offered to nations and 
men to link together in wide and deep fraternal unity" 
the two Americas. 

To achieve such vast possibilities, the co-operation 
of the republic through whose midst this waterway 
has been constructed, is essentially vital. 

What is Panama? 

The industrial and moral possibilities of the re- 
public merit careful study. Here is a territory of 3$,- 

72 



BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA *tB 

ooo square miles and a population that is estimated by 
the Panamanians to be 500,000 inhabitants, containing 
the mixed strains of blood from Spain, the West In- 
dies, the North American Indians and from a half a 
dozen other countries of the old and new worlds. 
Panama has a coast line on the Atlantic of 400 miles 
in length, and on the Pacific of 700 miles and its ter- 
ritorial seas are rich in the possibilities of fishing in- 
dustries, which as yet have seen but a comparatively 
meagre development. The land of this republic runs 
from sea level to a height of 5,000 feet, which fur- 
nishes a field for the cultivation of products ranging 
in character through the entire climatic register be- 
tween the torrid and temperate zones. Here are to 
be found regions of wonderful natural beauty shining 
in a perpetual spring time; wide tracts of natural 
prairie land wait for the development of stock raising 
on a large scale; innumerable rivers traverse the coun- 
try on both watersheds of the Cordilleras, and these 
are capable of furnishing water power for the com- 
ing agricultural and industrial enterprises; the forests 
contain no less than 140 different varieties of building- 
timber and dyewoods, and many of the vegetable prod- 
ucts now employed in various industries already have 
been discovered in these regions. 

The Republic of Panama has proved her possibilities 
in the cultivation of bananas, sugar, coffee, cacao, rub- 
ber and cotton, and many of the business men with 
whom I talked claimed for Panama a soil equally capa- 
ble with that of Cuba and Jamaica for the production 
of these tropical products. 

Few countries stand geographically in such happy 



!74 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

inter-oceanic relations to commercial traffic. A mar- 
ket for the supplies needed by the ever increasing num- 
ber of ships that pass through the canal, belongs nat- 
urally to Panama. No other country can be made 
capable of competing for this growing trade. The 
ship upon which we sailed down the West Coast, a 
Peruvian steamer, filled its entire order for fruits and 
the requirements of its table from Panama and Colon, 
and I saw a half dozen other ships of as many nation- 
alities waiting to restock their supplies of food at these 
Panamanian ports. The vast increase of trade in this 
line alone [which is certain to ensue with the diverting 
to the canal of commerce that now moves across the Pa- 
cific to the United States and Canadian ports, thence by 
rail overland and vice versa], together with the in- 
crease in traffic from all parts of Asia and Africa and 
Europe, that will naturally arise at the close of the war, 
will convert Panama into an unrivalled port of world 
marketing. 

How shall Panama meet her possibilities? 

The brief narration of these unusual advantages of 
location and soil-productivity would seem to make of 
Panama a "Providential Republic." But between the 
enchanting ideals and the practical possibilities lies a 
world of effort, and the chief factors of that effort are 
the men and the women themselves. 

I asked the representative of one of the largest 
business houses of the United States what he considered 
to be the first need in building up a lasting trade be- 
tween the two Americas. 

"The first essential," he replied, "is to get strong 
men to come down here prepared to settle down and 



BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA 75 

stay in the country: we send young men to these re- 
publics who hardly get their roots down than they are 
called away to other posts, and business must depend 
upon mediocre men or soldiers-of-fortune, who make 
a poor impression upon the South Americans, and who 
also seldom like the countries as fixed abiding places. 
You can not do much to help business among any people 
unless you like that people and the land they inhabit. 
We must use great care in choosing our South American 
business pioneers." 

Somewhat along this line was the remark of the 
manager of one of the large banking concerns of Pan- 
ama, a man who for many years has lived in this coun- 
try and speaks with authority: 

"Panama needs just now trained diplomats and men 
expert in the different departments of government; we 
should have specialists in commerce, fisheries, agricul- 
ture and finance, and the business of development of 
Panama should not be left to any one who is willing 
simply to come down here, because possibly he has 
succeeded at home in some particular line." 

This gentleman pointed out how the bungling mis- 
takes of men in Panama, men who had failed to realise 
the temper of the people, had "set back the clock," as 
he expressed it, and made it harder for the men who 
were foreigners to work down here. One man had 
recently been in Panama as an official government rep- 
resentative, and with perfectly good intentions had 
made such a faux pas in a public meeting that his in- 
fluence with the Panamanians had been destroyed quite 
completely. The interesting thing about this incident 
lay in the fact that the official does not know that he 



76 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

made a bad break, and the people were too polite to 
tell him. 

A certain American army officer is very popular with 
the people here, quite largely, as I am told, because he 
has endeavoured to understand the customs and the 
temper of the Panamanians. "He takes off his hat 
when he meets me," said one Panamanian, as he spoke 
of this officer. Another referred to a reception given 
by the official. When the President of Panama ar- 
rived the order was given for the national anthem to 
be played and H. E. was announced with all the dignity 
belonging to the Spanish-American temperament. 

It seems a bit ridiculous to the directness-loving 
American to change his attitude toward a person who 
may be his close friend whenever he treats with him 
officially, but it is just such little urbanities that win 
the respect of the Latin-American. A friend of mine 
who has lived long in this small republic told me of 
a very close friend of his who was recently elected as 
a Government official. "Now," said he, "if I .go to 
call upon my friend upon any official business I must 
take care to put on a silk hat and a frock coat and go 
through all the formalities required of an utter 
stranger." 

"Furthermore," said my informant, "it is required 
of us down here in the case of the death of a business 
acquaintance to robe ourselves in proper black cloth- 
ing and not only attend the funeral, but also, if the 
deceased is a personal friend, or a man to whom hon- 
our is due, we must walk all the way to the cemetery 
in the procession. Otherwise we would make mortal 
enemies of the family." 



BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA 77 

The northerner who is impatient and abrupt will 
always come to grief in these countries. The people 
are simply not accustomed to doing business in a hurry 
and they never separate their business from social 
courtesies of the drawing-room. One successful 
American voiced a very important need of those who 
would deal with these people of Spanish extraction 
when he said, "Patience is not a virtue simply, it is a 
necessity down here." 

This gentleman went on to say that while it is im- 
portant for the northerner to be patient and long suf- 
fering with many of those traits which would seem in 
our own country unpardonable, there are times when 
it is important to reveal firmness and even to lose one's 
temper. His advice along this line is given in his own 
words : 

"Don't lose your temper unless it is absolutely neces- 
sary, but if you do get mad, do it first — then your 
Panamanian will rush to you to apologise since he will 
think he has said something to hurt your feelings. He 
may not know what he said, or in fact he may have 
done nothing worthy of your indignation; nevertheless 
the apology will always be forthcoming." 

In other words, it will be seen that the inhabitants 
of Panama possess feelings that lie perilously near 
the surface. In some cases foreigners will tell you that 
it is necessary to treat certain classes of the inhabitants 
with whom they wish to have fraternal dealings much 
as they would treat children, and be willing to make 
many allowances. As one man expressed it: 

"You must treat them fairly, never lie to them, never 
exploit them, and always be on the watch lest you hurt 



78 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

their feelings, and at the same time you must keep in 
mind that they will often feel quite justified in deceiv- 
ing you, and even in treating you unfairly, without any 
evident realisation of conscientious scruples in the mat- 
ter." 

In treating with the Panamanian it is impossible to 
take for granted the same mental and moral back- 
ground existing among the people in the United States. 
You are dealing with another historic and national 
consciousness, and the sooner the northerner realises 
this fact, the more readily will he grasp the springs 
of possible success in business dealings with these peo- 
ple. 

There is another important point to be remem- 
bered which is being taught by experience in these 
Latin countries relative to trade with the United 
States; this is the advantage which business men pos- 
sess who do not need to trade with middlemen, but, 
having established their own houses in South America, 
are able to deal with the people directly. Firms like 
the Singer Sewing Machine, Standard Oil, and certain 
of the steel companies, for example, are able to com- 
pete successfully with any foreign firm because of the 
fact that they have established headquarters for their 
specialty in the South American republics. South 
Americans like to go to headquarters for their goods. 
Few Germans or Englishmen can successfully compete 
with one of these American firms that have thus es- 
tablished themselves in South America, since the Euro- 
pean agent usually has a dozen or more things which 
he sells for his German or English firm, and naturally 
can not be a specialist in any of them. 



BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA 79 

Add to these necessities for the new Panama a stable 
government which just now is a crying need, in order 
to assure titles for property and protection of busi- 
ness; the establishment of a few well ordered schools 
for agriculture and technical training; the constant in- 
fusion of men from the colder climates who will join 
with the youth of this fortunately located State in 
building firmly the basis of modern institutions, and 
some of the most vital needs of Panama will be met. 

As Mr. Duque of Panama City said to me (and he 
speaks out of an experience of more than thirty years 
in this country) , "the Panamanian lacks ambition in a 
country where living has been comparatively easy; he 
needs to be taught that there is something more worth 
while than to be a cheap politician; we have everything 
here in Panama to do with and are just waiting for the 
quality of manhood and a certain necessary amount of 
capital to make this country really great." 

There is, however, a political Panama which must 
be understood by Americans, who go down to these 
parts on commerce bent. It was of this political- 
minded people of which I was thinking especially as I 
entered the gates of the President's palace to talk with 
the head of this republic. 

It was one of those days in May when the tempera- 
ture is certainly tropical and the humidity registered 
at 94. 

We had heard many rumours concerning political 
unrest in Panama, and several persons had told me that 
a revolution was imminent. 

"It isn't that either side would expect to accomplish 
anything in particular by a revolution," said a busi- 



80 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

ness man of Panama City, "but the people haven't had 
a revolution for some time, and they seem to feel that 
it is absolutely necessary to stir things up periodically." 

One does not remain long in this part of the world 
without realising that business is closely related to poli- 
tics, and that one of the chief obstructions to business 
on a large scale in this republic has been the lack of 
confidence in the stability of Government and the dif- 
ficulty associated with laws regarding titles of land 
and property. For fifty-seven years before the United 
States came to the Canal Zone there had been an aver- 
age of a revolution a year, or, to speak more exactly, 
fifty-three revolutions in fifty-seven years. The re- 
sults of these uprisings have not been very serious as 
a rule, a few policemen have been killed while the 
aristocracy have usually found it convenient to have 
engagements indoors during these stormy periods. 

On the day in which I talked with the President a 
political meeting was held in the streets of Panama 
City at which the administration was severely flayed 
and the President was criticised for his endeavour to 
prevent the meeting: he was freely criticised as a "Dic- 
tator" and the enemy of free speech. 

Such denunciations are not taken very seriously by 
the people, for September and the elections were just 
ahead and these always bring about fierce rivalry be- 
tween the "ins" and the "outs." I was told that the 
two candidates of the respective parties had been 
asked to resign in favour of a man who would head a 
new or third party in order to bring about a united 
republic. It is rumoured also that the third would-be 
President had promised to divide the spoils with the 



BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA 81 

other two candidates if such arrangements could be 
made. It seems that the plan did not please the heads 
of the two parties who had already spent considerable 
money for their campaign and both of whom felt 
that they had too much to lose by the combination. 
As in other parts of South America, people follow 
personalities, rather than parties. 

The "outs" say that they would not be averse to in- 
tervention by the United States. This would doubt- 
Jess mean that the party in power would be removed 
and their political antagonists would have a chance. 

However this may be, the lot of Dr. Poras would 
not seem to be an enviable one as far as the allegiance 
of many of his people are concerned. In speaking of 
him a prominent banker said, "Every man in politics 
makes some enemies, but the present President of 
Panama made the mistake of making everybody his 
enemy." 

The pleasant-faced, courteous Spanish-looking gen- 
tleman of fifty-eight or sixty into whose presence I was 
ushered would hardly give any one the impression of 
an autocrat. The President may have enemies, but 
the men who were taking leave of him as I entered, 
would scarcely give the visitor the idea that they were 
his foes. One man was standing with his arms around 
the President's waist, and taxing the Spanish language 
for terms in which to express his admiration and fealty. 
To one just arrived from the North, the scene was a 
bit ludicrous; who, with the wildest imagination, would 
picture the visitor to President Wilson holding him 
firmly around the waist while he kissed him warmly 
upon both cheeks? This is o*ily one of the many signs 



82 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

constantly greeting the traveller from northern lati- 
tudes, assuring him that he has passed from the Anglo- 
Saxon world into the land of the Latin temperament. 
I found Dr. Poras exceedingly agreeable and willing 
to speak of the needs and the accomplishments of Pan- 
ama. To my first question, "What is the greatest 
present requirement of the Republic?" he answered: 

"Banks are our greatest need. We should have a 
big bank which would give long credits and demand 
small interest for the benefit of the agricultural class 
especially. As a matter of fact," said he, "our agri- 
cultural population possesses very small holdings and 
must do their work on a limited scale. They need our 
help financially; and the banking systems used in the 
North are not always adaptable to our people. 

"This country of Panama," continued Dr. Poras, "is 
a rich country and has hardly begun to be developed. 
Its possibilities in sugar, bananas, cocoanuts, and in 
mining, have not been generally realised. Only a very 
small part of the area of the country is now under 
cultivation. Our great need is capital to assure the 
opening of agricultural business on a larger scale." 

Dr. Poras then spoke of the new railroad which had 
been built during his administration, meeting another 
need of present day Panama. This is a three-foot 
gauge steam railway in the Province of Chiriqui and 
extends from Pedregal on the Pacific Coast to the town 
of David and thence to the town of Boquete with a 
total length of about fifty-two miles. In spite of the 
enthusiasm of Dr. Poras concerning this road which 
has cost Panama so heavily, the hard-headed business 
man of the city will tell you that it is a road that be- 
gins nowhere and goes nowhere, and if one-quarter of 



BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA 83 

the money had been spent upon the building of good 
country roads for the transportation of crops, the re- 
sult would have been far more beneficial to Panama. 

"Is your education in Panama coming on satisfac- 
torily?" I asked. 

Dr. Poras then referred to the statistics which 
showed that from a total of 323 schools with an at- 
tendance of 15,000 in 191 2, the number of schools had 
increased in 19 14 to 518 with an attendance of 23,445. 
He also spoke with much interest of the two agricul- 
tural schools recently founded, a normal school for 
girls and a professional school for women. 

The National Institute, which is the highest educa- 
tional institution of the republic, has established a 
commercial section, and in 19 13 a School of Painting 
was established. 

Dr. Poras was much interested in his work among 
the Indians of Panama with whom he has been suc- 
cessful, not only "conquering" them with friendship 
but also in establishing among them schools and other 
means of civilisation. He showed me pictures of most 
beautiful islands covered with waving palms on which 
some of the tribes live, together with photographs in 
which he appeared with the chiefs. He exhibited all 
the pleasure of a child in showing me these photographs 
and said, "There is only one chief whom I have not 
conquered, but I shall subdue him, through the force 
of friendship." The President was inclined to dwell 
at length upon this subject of the Indians since it was 
the one topic upon which evidently he was not criticised, 
and Dr. Poras, who is a clever man, knew that at this 
period, virtually everything he did was wrong. 



84 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

It was with difficulty that I drew him from this in- 
nocuous subject of the Indians to the important subject 
of politics and government. 

"Do you expect re-election as President?" I asked. 

"No," was the reply, "according to our laws the 
President can not be re-elected for the term immedi- 
ately following his own, unless he resigns his office 
eighteen months prior to the election." 

It was brought out that the President's cabinet at 
present consists of a Secretary of Government and 
Justice who has charge of the administration of the 
provinces, municipalities, police force, city fire depart- 
ments, post offices, telegraph systems, etc. The courts 
of justice, notaries, the penal institutions, and all mat- 
ters relating to the administration of justice are also 
under this Department's jurisdiction. It would seem 
that this Secretary is a very much over-worked man, 
and there would appear also to be a reason for the 
fact that his title has been known to be written by his 
opponents as, the "Secretary of the Government In- 
justice." 

Then there is the Department of Foreign Relations 
having charge of the diplomatic corps, interrational 
boundary disputes, congresses and conventions. It is 
this Department that bears the brunt of the failure of 
the Panama Exposition where over half a million dol- 
lars was expended, seemingly to small comparative pur- 
pose. As one citizen expressed it, "In the first place 
we didn't have anything but a few bananas and cocoa- 
nuts to exhibit, and if the United States hadn't stepped 
in and helped us out, it would have been a perfect 
fizzle." 



BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN PANAMA 85 

The other three cabinet officials are the Secretary 
of the Treasury, Secretary of Public Instruction, and 
the Secretary of Fomento (Promotion). 

Panama has no army, but its place is taken by a 
national police corps numbering one thousand officers 
and men. A revenue cutter is maintained. It is a 
steam launch of 454 tons. 

I found the people considerably stirred over the 
demand of the United States for the disarmament of 
the police force. The objection was not so much to 
the disarmament as to the somewhat abrupt manner 
in which it was accomplished. 

When I asked the President what he thought about 
this disarmament, he said, 

"Down here, we think Latin and we speak Spanish. 
You think Anglo-Saxon and you speak English. The 
result is we don't understand your words — and 
methods" (and his Excellency smiled) "and you do 
not understand our thoughts." He then went on with 
quite a treatise on the subject of the differences between 
the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin temperament. It was 
a very delightful conversation, but when later I began 
to jot down my notes and found that the President had 
beautifully refrained from answering any question 
directly, I had a graphic demonstration of one differ- 
ence between the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin habit of 
mind. 

It is this difference in the point of view which is re- 
sponsible for much of the difficulty and lack of mutual 
understanding between the peoples of the United States 
and the Central American republics. Pan-American- 
ism means benefits both ways, and many of the people 



86 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

in Panama will tell you that it is to be expected that the 
United States will get the benefit of the new trade, but 
they are always asking, "What do we get?" 

The opening of the Panama Canal which has brought 
Panama into the great avenue of international business 
and politics has made it increasingly necessary that we 
strive to find out what the Panamanian is thinking, and 
how his interests as well as our own can best be served 
in the carrying out of the new order of world com- 
merce. One can not pass through the Canal and be- 
hold the lines of ships going before and following 
through the great locks, ships flying flags of many 
diverse nationalities, without realising that new link 
between the nations which is bound to affect far-reach- 
ingly the history of future generations. 

The Canal has tapped the commerce of the Pacific 
Ocean valued at present at $4,000,000,000. It has 
also introduced directly to a world heretofore far away, 
1,000,000,000 population living tributary to this ocean. 
This strategic point is quite sure to be a pivotal factor 
in our own political and commercial life. It is worth 
our pains to know what kind of people these are, as 
well as the firms most closely interested in our under- 
takings in this region. 

"We have a word which is all powerful down here," 
said a Panamanian — that word is "simpatico." 



CHAPTER V 

TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS THE ECUADORIAN AND 

BOLIVIAN 

AS the traveller looks out of his cabin window in the 
early morning in the Guayaquil river he sees all 
about him small fishing boats at anchor. There is no 
sign of fishing and upon inquiry he is informed that 
those boats filled with listless Ecuadorians are waiting 
for the turn of the tide to carry them down the river. 
It is easier than rowing, and time is no factor in the 
life of a fisherman in this land of Pizarro. 

These anchored fishers waiting for a favourable cur- 
rent impressed me as a fitting picture in miniature of 
the people of this country still remindful of the six- 
teenth century. There are here one and a half million 
of inhabitants — Indians, Mestizos, Spaniards — all 
waiting — waiting — waiting for the turning of the 
tide, without worry meanwhile, and seemingly quite 
as indifferent regarding the matter as were their fathers 
and ancestors for the past five hundred years. 

Slowly we steamed up the river until before us 
in the blazing equatorial sun lay the straggling port 
city of Guayaquil, which enjoys the unenviable distinc- 
tion of being the "City of the Yellow Jack," perhaps 
the most unhealthy port of entry to any country of 
modern times. A wide circling arc of one and two 

87 



83 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

storied buildings lurch down to a stream as muddy as 
the Ganges, while half clothed natives swarm along the 
unkempt banks of the river at the mouths of the nar- 
row streets. The ship is carried so near the river-side 
that one can see the gesticulating inhabitants about the 
long market place, and their confused murmur of voices 
greet one over the current like a warning cry of "Un- 
clean" — a fateful welcome to these lowlands of the 
bubonic plague and the stegomyia, the fever-laden 
mosquito. To be sure it was the first of June, the be- 
ginning of the dry season, when the death-dealing mos- 
quito is supposed to have left the water front, that this 
scene unfolded before our eyes, yet the miasmic shadow 
of the place seemed to rivet the consciousness with a 
spell that not even the rounded hills that sentinel the 
town and the chiming towers of the Catholic steeples 
were sufficient to dispel. One recalls the reported say- 
ing of the short sighted Guayaquil merchants to the 
effect: "Sanitation will tempt the 'gringo' to come in 
and wrest our business from us. Let our friend, 
'Yellow Jack,' stay." 

I did not wonder that a business man from the 
"States," who had sailed thousands of miles to make 
inspection of mining properties in Ecuador, confided 
to me as he stepped down the gang plank to the small 
boat that was to take him ashore, that he was tempted 
to turn about and go home. Indeed, if one did not 
realise that beyond these quarantined hot lowlands lay 
116,000 square miles of fertile plateaus and snow- 
capped Andes, or think of Quito, the capital city with 
its 75,000 inhabitants, calling one up there among the 
mountains 9,371 feet above the sea, he would hesitate. 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 89 

Yet one wishes usually to see the vast cacao groves 
which belong to those equatorial altitudes thousands of 
feet above the Pacific, and the unique industry of Ecua- 
dor in vegetable ivory yielding yearly for this country 
and the world 20,000 tons. Ecuador's $15,000,000 
of exports of coffee, her rubber, Panama hats and a 
dozen other native products, and her grandeur of 
mountain scenery weigh in the balance in her favour; 
otherwise it is doubtful whether any American traveller 
would sail up the Guayas river that laves the wharves 
of Guayaquil, the largest seaport town of Ecuador, 
where 40,000 people live in squalid forgetfulness of 
the twentieth century. 

The modern Ecuador can be understood only by a 
glance at the historic background far in the beginning 
of the sixteenth century when Francisco Pizarro, hav- 
ing conquered the great Inca Empire and executed the 
Inca king, turned to Ecuador whose people resembled 
in social and political institutions the Incas. On Dec. 
6th, 1534, the Spaniards entered Quito as conquerors, 
Pizarro was appointed Governor of the province and 
the usual Spanish custom of feudal times was begun of 
dividing the land among themselves and the establish- 
ment of feudal estates. 

After several rearrangements, by which Ecuador was 
included first in the vice-royalty of Peru, and also an- 
nexed to the vice-royalty of Granada, a movement for 
independence began on August 10th, 1809, when the 
citizens of Quito deposed the Spanish governor and 
established a revolutionary junta. Although the 
Spaniards regained control, they lost it afterward in 
1820, when the citizens of Guayaquil declared their 



90 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

independence. In 1830 a constitutional assembly was 
held proclaiming the Constitution of the Republic of 
Ecuador. 

In spite of the fact that the country has been called 
a republic for nearly a hundred years, the influence of 
this ancient Spanish regime is apparent, revealing itself 
in many ways. Three centuries of rule make a decided 
print on any country, and the rule of Spain was 
characterised by certain things that cling with tenacity 
to the Latin nations of South America. 

The whole colonisation policy of the Spaniards dif- 
fered radically from that of the settlers in New Eng- 
land and Virginia. They were not actuated by a de- 
sire to secure either political or religious freedom, nor 
were they especially interested in the industrial and 
agricultural development of their colonies. To the 
Spaniards, any work which might be considered in the 
least menial was not looked upon with favour, and the 
natives early were placed in the position of slaves. 
To-day the same attitude of mind prevails and the for- 
eigner who so far forgets himself as to carry his own 
bag or suitcase in Ecuador loses caste with the aristoc- 
racy. 

Spain brought to South America the spirit of the 
Middle Ages; her sons were not colonisers but adven- 
turers who came to the New World in search of gold 
and an easy means- of existence. The religion which 
they brought with them was of that narrow type found 
in Spain in the era of Ferdinand and Isabella, and it 
carried with it all the bigotry and disregard of human 
rights that characterised the Inquisition period. The 
union of the Church and State in these new lands stood 







'las balsas" reed boats, lake titicaca 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 91 

for the apportionment of the lands to the privileged 
classes, the multiplication of priests, friars and nuns, 
and instead of the inauguration of equal rights, there 
was instituted the rule, or misrule, in which the ele- 
ments of force, bribery, intrigue, cruelty, treachery and 
authoritative religion formed the doubtful weapons of 
sovereignty and progress. 

The policy of the rule was well expressed in the 
words of one of the Mexican viceroys: 

"Let the people of these dominions learn once for 
all that they were born to be silent and to obey, and 
not to discuss or to have opinions in political affairs." 

Trade with foreign countries was entirely prohibited 
and all mineral wealth was heavily taxed. The native 
could not enter into business without the consent of an 
official, and for a man to seek a free field for his labour 
was held to be treason. Education was denied by these 
Spanish conquerors, and the local governors joined with 
the ecclesiastical authorities in a settled system of down- 
right subjection by force and chicanery which has af- 
fected later generations. Immigrants were forbidden 
by Spain and not until comparatively recent years has 
there been infused into these South American countries 
any great amount of new blood. 

To be sure, a hundred years has passed over lands 
like Ecuador since such deadening ideals of civilisation 
had their sway. But not in one century does a nation 
pass out from beneath the yoke of those ways of 
thought and custom which undercut initiative, stifle the 
conscience, degrade the thought of honest labour, and 
deprive the individual of human rights. 



92 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

It takes time to develop republics out of elements 
worked upon for generations by a system of selfish 
mediaeval feudalism. "It is a travesty on the word," 
said a leading foreign business man for many years 
in Ecuador, "to call this country a republic": and then 
he told me for an hour instances of autocratic rule and 
undemocratic customs which had all the earmarks of 
monarchical domination. 

It must be learned that self-government, the appeal 
to the ballot instead of to arms in settling ordinary dis- 
putes, and the building up of self-confidence and self- 
reliance, are matters that cannot be inaugurated over 
night in a mass meeting, where a Constitution is agreed 
upon with high sounding words. Republics develop 
from within outward and not in the opposite direction, 
and the spirit of a Constitution is far more important 
than its letter when it comes to the making of demo- 
cratic states. 

Remembering these days of checkered history we 
were not astonished when upon asking a prominent 
Ecuadorian what he considered to be the chief need of 
the people at present; he replied, "Discipline, personal 
and national discipline." 

It must be remembered that about 40 per cent of the 
people of Ecuador are Indians, 50 per cent mixed 
Indians and Spanish or mestizos, and only about 2 per 
cent of the population are pure Spanish or white. 
Many think that this mixture of races has brought 
down the level, as the Indian is usually considered a 
more desirable worker than the mestizo, and compares 
favourably with him in the matter of morals. 

As to education, the authorities give the following 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 98 

facts : primary education is maintained at the cost of the 
state, and school attendance is compulsory. The Re- 
public reports an attendance of 100,000 pupils in 1,000 
public schools of primary grade. There are 35 secon- 
dary schools, and somewhat recently the government 
has established 9 higher schools with commercial and 
technical schools in Quito and Guayaquil. One finds 
at Quito also an old university, while faculties for 
higher training can be found at Cuenca and at Guaya- 
quil. It is fair to truth, however, to state that all that 
glitters is not gold in educational government reports 
in Ecuador. 

About one in sixteen persons are reported to be en- 
rolled in school. It is evident that the children of the 
Indians are getting practically no schooling, while one 
will be informed that possibly one fourth of the children 
of the peons are receiving some kind of instruction. It 
is the law in Ecuador that the master having ten or 
more families of labourers on his estate must maintain 
for them a school, but in this case, as in others, the law 
is not always obeyed. As in East India, the parents 
are loath to give up their children for school attend- 
ance, especially outside the towns, where the parents 
have little regard for education and are living in an 
ignorance at times startling to those unacquainted with 
the backwardness of some of these states. The shuck- 
ing of ivory nuts, and the earnings therefrom, usually 
outweigh the attraction of the schools. 

Of Ecuador, as of many another country, one may 
speak in terms that seem at first contradictory. It is 
an equatorial land; indeed, it takes its name from the 
equator, but in its highland plateaus where nine-tenths 



94 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

v of the population live, the weather is cold enough for 
winter clothing. Guayaquil lying in the low, shore 
levels is anything but desirable from a physical point 
of view, while Quito and much of the domain lying a 
mile and a half above the sea in and between the paral- 
lel ranges of the Andes, furnishes as beautiful scenery 
as one could wish, with dry and bracing mountain air. 

One finds here a very uncertain government and an 
undisciplined and unsteady people, yet a commercial 
condition worthy of note in at least three great indus- 
tries. The traveller who walks along the busy water- 
front of Guayaquil passes warehouses filled with piles 
of cacao bags as high as the buildings themselves, and 
he is told that this industry in itself amounts to between 
eight and ten million dollars a year in exports, while 
Ecuador's trade in tagua nuts, or vegetable ivory, leads 
the world, with an output reaching upward to two mil- 
lion dollars yearly. 

The palm producing the ivory nuts is found chiefly 
on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, and grows from ten to 
twenty feet in height bearing at the base of the leaves 
a cluster of nuts resembling cocoanuts. Each nut con- 
tains seeds approximating the size of small potatoes, 
but fine in grain and approximating real ivory in char- 
acteristic. It is of this material that most of the 
buttons of the world are made. 

American enterprise is now entering Ecuador, one 
of the large New York export houses, having 40 offices 
and 2,000 men working on the west coast of South 
America, being well represented here. 

It is only a matter of time, hygienic improvement, 
and patient modernisation of roads, people and govern- 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 95 

ment, that keep the door into Ecuador still half closed 
1 — considerable "matter" one admits — yet the for- 
eigners in this equatorial republic have hopes. 

It is the instability of government especially, that 
handicaps the present day Ecuador. The Constitution 
is liberal; foreigners enjoy the same rights and civil 
guarantees as do the citizens of the country, and free- 
dom of thought, worship and the press is given. It is 
an inducement to trade to find that aliens may acquire 
property, public lands, and hold the right to establish 
banking institutions under the same conditions with 
Ecuadorians. It is also worthy of note that the Presi- 
dent of this republic, as in most of the South American 
states, is elected for a term of four years by direct vote, 
and cannot be re-elected except after the lapse of two 
intervening terms. 

The government is supported by a permanent army 
consisting of upwards of 7,500 officers and men, and a 
first and second series of reserves of 100,000 men. 
There are also mining and torpedo sections, a sani- 
tary section, and a telegraph and telephone corps — all 
created in 19 10. The navy of Ecuador consists of one 
cruiser, the Cotopaxi, a torpedo destroyer, the Bolivar, 
of 1000 tons; one torpedo boat, the Tar qui, of 56 tons; 
three launches and one auxiliary vessel, with a total 
personnel of about 200 men. 

There is maintained a telegraph system of 3,500 
miles with 188 officers ; two telephone systems with 400 
subscribers each and 150 post offices. In 19 13 the 
postal money order system was installed in the principal 
offices and the parcel post system is in vogue. 

Despite these advances, Ecuador has much to learn 



96 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

in the use of modern contrivances. The Constitution 
has not yet learned to "march." The people have not 
yet discovered that revolutions do not usually pay, yet 
some of these revolutions in recent years have been 
little more than opera boufe. A railroad official in 
describing to me a recent revolution said that he was 
ordered by the government to have ready a special 
train to carry General A- and his army which con- 
sisted of fifty-four men. He gave them the train and 
shortly afterwards another order was received to have 

ready a second train for General B and his army 

of fifty-seven men. The trains were made ready and 
the government troops departed for the battlefield. 
They met the revolutionists' army in a valley, the 
enemy to the established government consisting of the 
somewhat unique combination of seventy-eight officers 
and three privates. A battle ensued lasting for several 
hours when six men were killed and fifteen wounded, 
the government troops achieving a glorious triumph, 
and, returning home, received the admiring "vivas" of 
the populace, whom they had so bravely defended. 

One soon is impressed with the fact that the Ecua- 
dorian loves a uniform and gold lace quite as much as 
the Japanese. This is especially evident among the 
army officers. We were told of how a Paris house 
received some time since an order for uniforms for the 
army of Ecuador. The head of the Parisian clothing 
establishment understood the order with the exception 
of one set of Ecuadorian regalia that was to be covered 
almost completely with gold lace, braid, epaulettes, 
etc. He called on the representatives having the mat- 
ter in charge and said: 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 97 

"I understand all the other uniforms but this one; 
what branch of the service is to use this pretentious 
uniform?" 

The representative answered, "Oh, that is for the 
members of our secret service." 

Although the laws of the republic look excellent on 
paper, their execution halts badly at times. A for- 
eigner who has lived many years in Ecuador informed 
me of the frightful "graft" in the customs revenue. 
He said, "If I could have charge of the customs for 
three years, I would be able to save for the government 
fifty per cent more than they are now receiving, and in 
addition, if I could be allowed the surplus, make for 
myself a munificent fortune." 

There seems to be a way to get around the revenue, 
and it is said all along the coast that one reason that 
the Germans can crowd out all competition in the ivory 
nut industry, is because of their understanding of the 
methods of satisfying officials, thus relieving themselves 
from paying the scheduled duty. 

An American told me of his experience in getting a 
large consignment of supplies from America upon 
which he paid the regular duty. A Guayaquil mer- 
chant criticised him for being so foolish as to pay the 
full duty. "But," said the American, "it is the thing 
to do." "Yes, perhaps so," said the Ecuadorian, "but 
no one does it here." 

In these tendencies, as in so many other departments 
of Ecuadorian enterprise and activity, the historic tra- 
ditions planted and grown for centuries amongst these 
people by their European conquerors, are dying hard. 
That, however, they are becoming less and less popular 



98 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

with the increased introduction of foreign trade and 
traders, and especially at present by the added impetus 
to South American industries on account of the Euro- 
pean war, is patent to any unprejudiced observer. 
Ecuador, with its vast fields of untouched wealth, and 
with its growing sense of justice born of contact with 
the outside world, is certain to cut herself away slowly 
but surely from these deadening bonds with which she 
has been bound for hundreds of years, and with this 
emancipation, a real republic of far-reaching value to 
herself and the world, will result. 

Bolivia — The Mountain Republic 

No one visits Bolivia without considerable sacrifice. 
It is justly called the Mountain Republic for it is an 
isolated elevation 12,470 feet above sea level, and in 
winter, that is during the months of June, July, August 
and September, especially, this country can furnish in- 
conveniences second to none that we know of on the 
face of the earth. 

Shortly before our intended departure from Cuzco 
for Las Pas we were greeted with the cheerful informa- 
tion that a terrific snow storm was raging in Bolivia 
and that two policemen had been frozen to death on 
the streets of La Paz. Since the Bolivians have no 
fires in their houses, coal and fuel being so expensive, 
the traveller naturally draws the conclusion that the 
policemen were frozen upon the street because they 
had gone out of doors to get warm. Indeed, the 
houses of Bolivia, like many of the great cell-like 
Spanish structures in many of the mountainous sections 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 99 

of Peru, seem to have corked up the cold of four hun- 
dred years, and their bleakness is absolutely impreg- 
nable. No one who visits Bolivia in winter can possi- 
bly imagine how any population could build houses with 
rooms thirty feet long and sixteen feet high with no 
arrangements whatever for warming them, to resist a 
climate as cold as the United States in November or 
December, unless these people had had evil intentions 
upon their posterity. 

I asked a certain gentleman whom I met coming out 
of the country wearing three overcoats what he thought 
of Bolivia. He answered grimly, "I didn't see any- 
thing of Bolivia. I spent the whole time while in the 
country in bed, which was the only place I found where 
I could keep warm." 

There are, however, things in Bolivia other than 
the temperature to attract and to impress the traveller. 
Here is really a remarkable land, lying midway of the 
South American continent at the place where the 
Andean range is widest, comprising 640,000 square 
miles, being the third largest political division south of 
Panama. 

The population of this country of the Andean table 
lands is 2,000,000, only 13 per cent, of whom are pure 
white. In a sense, therefore, it is an Indian republic. 
There are three main divisions of these Indians, the 
Ayamara, Quichua, and the Mojos, together with many 
minor tribes. A, prominent Indian called Bolivia "a 
commonwealth of savages," a title which would hardly 
be acceptable to the whites of the republic. 

Formerly Bolivia was a part of the Kingdom of the 
Sun, or a vital section of the Inca Empire. From 1821 



100 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

to 1825, Simon Bolivar, who is called the George 
Washington of South America, led the Bolivians to 
Independence, and the people took his name in honour 
of his career as Liberator. Bolivia was thus the first 
of the South American states to teach the fine art of 
liberty by example, and she is very proud of this fact. 

In the first Act of Independence for Bolivia we read 
the words : "Upper Peru was the altar on which the 
first blood was shed for liberty in the land where the 
last tyrant perished." 

This mountain republic stands at the distributing 
cross roads for traffic through South America. Two- 
fifths of its area is mountain region, and the rest is 
composed of vast stretches of swampy bottom lands, 
forests, low hills and plains, lying on the eastern border. 
It is a land rich in mines of silver, tin and copper. The 
climate is diverse, and like Peru it is capable of great 
extremes. One sees in La Paz llamas loaded with ice 
from the north coming into the market place to meet 
there mules loaded with oranges and tropical fruits 
from the south and eastern borders. It is a land of 
contrasts and rich resources, and is as dependent upon 
the Indian race as is Peru. 

La Paz, which is called the Mecca of the Andes, 
Capital and chief city of the Bolivian republic, is one 
of the picture cities of the world. As the traveller gets 
his first glimpse of it lying in a valley one thousand feet 
deep with vertical walls ten miles long and three wide, 
surrounded by snow-capped mountains, — it makes an 
unforgettable scene. Five rivers flow through the 
valley crossed by ponderous bridges. One descends to 
this city containing 60,000 to 100,000 population (ac- 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 101 

cording to the movement of the people) in an electric 
car-line built by an American, and throughout this land, 
as in many another South American republic, the far- 
reaching value of immigration from Europe and other 
parts of the world is evident. 

Here at La Paz one finds a railroad centre for three 
lines. The city is indeed the pivot not only for the 
Bolivian railway system, but the centre of the future 
progress of the country. La Paz is a rapidly growing 
city; there are many line buildings and the city is 
rapidly building down the valley. As in other South 
American states, the past history of the country has 
been checkered and there have been many changes in 
which the Capital of the country has shared. Indeed, 
the traveller will have pointed out to him quite a line 
of cities and towns, each of which has been at some 
time the Capital of this land, — Sucre, Cochabamba, etc. 

An Englishman is reported to have asked: "Where 
is really the Capital of Bolivia?" A Bolivian an* 
swered his question by replying, "The Capital of 
Bolivia is the back of the horse which the President of 
the Republic rides." 

In entering Bolivia from Peru, while the traveller is 
impressed with the preponderance of Indians as is the 
case in the Sierra section of the Peruvian country, there 
is also the impression of a more virile and sturdy con- 
dition of affairs as evidenced both in people and in 
business. Nine hundred miles of railway in the coun- 
try bring the people and produce to the central mar- 
ket places of La Paz, and an Argentine railway is 
about to open the republic to the Atlantic, two thou- 
sand miles away through Buenos Aires. The silver 



102 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

mines of Potosi are famous the world over, and in the 
past three hundred years are said to have yielded 
two billion ounces of silver. At one time the entire 
world was dependent upon these mines for silver 
coinage. Bolivia is sometimes called "The Land of 
Ten Thousand Silver Mines," and although there is 
still a great lack of modern enterprise and capital to tap 
the rich and untouched resources of this vast republic, 
the present development is increasingly rapid. 

Cochabamba is the garden city of the country and 
the city of tin mines. The Bolivians will tell you with 
pride that their country is the second tin-producing 
country in the world. 

The traveller will visit Sucre in that long curve of 
railroad that connects La Paz with Antofagasta in its 
two days' train journey and find in this one-time Capital 
a city of old Spain, but gradually being dressed in 
modern clothes. 

In Bolivia the military service has been made com- 
pulsory for Indians between the ages of nineteen and 
twenty-one, and these have been drilled in many cases 
by German officers and instructors. It is a combina- 
tion of education and military drill, and the result is 
said to be a rapid advance in the condition of this 
large portion of the population. The Indians are 
taught to obey, to read and to write, and some authen- 
tic account and vision of modern civilisation is being 
given to them. There is a dearth of scientific and in- 
dustrial training, as in Peru, and one is always led to 
wonder why these countries existed under the nominal 
influence of Spanish control for hundreds of years with 
so little genuine and systematic attention being given 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 103 

to the race of people upon whom the entire population 
so largely depends. 

As a city of colour, La Paz is probably unequalled by 
any city in South America, unless perhaps by Cuzco, 
Peru. The costumes of the people are so vivid that 
one has described a market scene by calling it "a field 
of poppies in the month of June." The women wear 
round flat, pan-cake hats, embroidered on the top, and 
they shine and glitter in the sunlight. The stylish 
Boliviana wears as many skirts as she can get on her 
body, often eight or nine, each of a differing shade, 
and one showing below the other. They are extremely 
full and sway as she walks, making her look like a 
perambulating umbrella. 

The ponchos of the men are of every colour under 
the sun — red, green, brown, grey, purple, yellow, or a 
mixture of all the colours, made up in stripes. Yet the 
dirt of years tones down these brilliant colours, until 
they are all so softened that they form a beautiful 
whole. The people are brown by nature, brown by 
exposure and brown from lack of bathing facilities, 
because in this cold country a bath is almost a sure 
forerunner of that dreaded disease, pneumonia. As 
in Peru, the Indian woman is always occupied with her 
little spinning spindle, and as she walks or talks or 
sits before her wares in the market place, her hands 
are busy turning the wool carried upon her right arm 
into the thread with which she weaves her clothing and 
the gay poncho of her lord and master. 

The Aymara Indians impress one as being a stronger 
and more vigorous race than the Quichuas of Peru, and 
they must be treated with more consideration than these 



104 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

latter, as there have been within late years serious 
uprisings of the Indians to voice their indignation 
against unfair treatment meted out to them by the 
white man. 

As with the other South-American Indians, alcohol 
is their curse. On feast days men, women and chil- 
dren become horribly intoxicated, and remain in that 
condition so long as they can beg, borrow or steal the 
liquor they crave. 

On the whole, however, Bolivia seems to be facing 
the sun and appears to be more inclined to progress 
than does her neighbour, Peru. Recently negotiations 
have been carried on with representatives of the 
Bolivian government for large plans of immigration, 
which must come in these countries if modernity is 
expected to appear. The plan was formed not long 
since to bring one thousand colonists, Dutch and 
North Americans especially, with their families to form 
an agricultural colony in Eastern Bolivia, and it is be- 
lieved that the conditions of settlement will be so 
favourable that these people will become, in a short 
time, Bolivian citizens. 

The Congress of Bolivia has passed a bill prohibit- 
ing, with certain exceptions, work on Sundays in fac- 
tories, shops, commercial houses and other business es- 
tablishments. The bill also provided for the closing 
of saloons on Sundays, violations of the law being 
punishable with heavy fines for the first offence and 
with fines and arrests for further violations. The 
need of commercial and business training is being felt in 
Bolivia and plans are on foot for commercial schools; 
one, the Mercantile Institute of Santiago, Chile, has 



TWO MOUNTAIN REPUBLICS 105 

opened a branch school in La Paz under the manage- 
ment of a Bolivian professor, educated in Chile. 

The possibilities, born of the immense resources of 
the land, are well nigh limitless. Bolivia waits for 
modern pioneers, for leadership and the right training 
of her Indians, for capital for the large mining and 
transportation enterprises, which must come from the 
outside, and for a system of education adaptable to the 
diverse elements of her Mountain Republic. 



CHAPTER VI 

PERUVIAN CHARACTERISTICS 
Manners maketh the man. — William of Wyckham. 

THE men of Peru vary so widely in racial origins 
and national characteristics that any general title 
like "The Man of Peru" seems to call for the further 
question, "Which man?" — Here in modern Peru one 
finds the mediaeval man. I visited a great Franciscan 
monastery in Lima where the air is laden with the in- 
fluences and customs of far distant years; the monks 
chant their Latin orisons and follow their mediaeval 
vows as though Francis of Assisi lived but yesterday. 
The man of Peru is also the Indian man, at least 
nearly two million of them, though population statis- 
tics are difficult to secure on the tablelands of the 
Andes. These early inhabitants of the Americas 
range in character from utter savages abiding in the 
deep recesses of the Cordilleras to the self-respecting 
landholders and agriculturists of the coast towns. 
These Indians form as a rule an industrious community, 
as long as the white man's whiskey can be kept out of 
their reach. When they mix in marriage with the 
Spanish stock to form the "mestizos," their intelligence 
is said to be enhanced. Yet here even in the vigorous 
mountain air the proverbial "lazy Red Man" is to be 

106 



PERUVIAN CHARACTERISTICS 107 

found all too frequently and his mistrust of the white 
man makes intimate friendships between them com- 
paratively rare. If the Indian of Peru could be 
blessed with a few schools of the grade and type of 
training in practical arts of Carlisle and Haskell, the 
day of industrial progress would be hastened by scores 
of years in this rich and fertile land of the Incas. 

Among the one and one half million inhabitants of 
Peru not classed as Indians, the types and nationalities 
are varied, but the Spanish racial stock predominates 
and the language and customs of Spain have set a 
deep mark on the whole country. 

In spite of the advantages which the Spaniards have 
brought to South American civilisation, the initial ideal 
[or perhaps one might say the lack of ideal as far as 
the constructive development of the country is con- 
cerned,] and the inherent form of pecuniary corrup- 
tion attending the administration of Spanish laws, have 
shackled Peru making difficult modern advance. 

Even from the time of Pizarro, the eyes of the 
Spaniard have looked towards Europe as a Mecca of 
pleasure and the place to which he is anxious always 
to return. Unlike the Frenchman who goes to 
Morocco or Algeria with the idea of permanent settle- 
ment, rearing there his small towns in miniature of 
those in France, and thinking particularly about the 
building of homes and the betterment of industrial 
conditions, the Spaniard came to Peru largely for ex- 
ploitation purposes. He was an adventurer and the 
glint of gold was in his eye. Even to-day, he will not 
stay in the country, but is only happy when he is at 
Lima or, if his means permit, when spending a large 



108 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

part of the year in Paris or some other European cap. 
ital. His sons, born in Peru, have inherited these 
urban tastes, and one of the first things noticed in Peru 
is the lack of patriotism or love for the rural districts. 
I frequently heard the remark that certain senators had 
never even visited the provinces which they were sup- 
posed to represent. It is a sad commentary upon the 
industrial capabilities of the Peruvian Spaniard that 
virtually every great commercial and national Peruvian 
enterprise has been inaugurated and developed by for- 
eigners. 

The Peruvian, more than the inhabitant of any other 
South American republic, clings to his pride of Span- 
ish lineage. There is, to be sure, no colour line here, 
and occasionally a man whose colour would be a handi- 
cap in reaching a place in society in the United States, 
is found among the best social circles in Lima. The 
white men who stand at the apex of Peruvian society 
are usually members of old families, and many of 
them have retained from former prosperous days con- 
siderable wealth, while all have inherited more or less 
the ideas strange to North Americans. Among these 
traditional ideas is the sentiment that labour and even 
commercial activities are somewhat infra dig and the 
career of a gentleman who can live without work, or 
a politician (which often means the same thing in 
Peru), is standardised here. 

The head of one of the large foreign business houses 
in Lima told me that he and his wife did not expect 
much of a place socially in the city, because of his 
alliance with commercial affairs. While it is a truism 
that "money talks" in Peru, quite as loudly as in other 



PERUVIAN CHARACTERISTICS 109 , 

countries, and the ability to shine in material splendour 
is a great factor in securing influential leadership, 
nevertheless, the processes of securing wealth are not 
popular; to this fact can be traced much of the back- 
ward condition of this country, surpassed by few other 
lands in wealth of national resources. 

The cultivated 'man of Peru is interested in making 
a good appearance, in dressing in the height of fashion 
regardless of his financial ability, and in placing as his 
ideal a condition of ease in which he can merely re- 
ceive his dividends and spend his time abroad, or 
amidst the charmed circles of select Peruvian society. 
Indeed, those who have really reached such a position 
enviable in the eyes of their countrymen, dwell in a 
world apart, keep largely to themselves, intermarry, 
and move in a restricted orbit, filled only with the an- 
cestrally elect. 

Peru is one of the few South American republics 
in which the tide of immigration from European coun- 
tries has not as yet set in strongly. In Chile, Argen- 
tina and Brazil, a variety of ethnic elements from vir- 
tually all parts of Europe, and also from North 
America, are now being mixed to form a new, vigorous 
and self-respecting division of mankind. Peru is still 
in the shadows of the middle ages, and the mediaeval 
Catholic Church is revealed more potently here than 
in any other large state south of Panama. I asked 
the editor of a foreign paper, who has lived for the 
most of his life in Peru, about the force which the 
Catholic Church exerted upon the people, and he an- 
swered: 



110 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

"It is a force, but it is the force of inertia — it is a 
stone on the ground. It keeps things from moving 
forward. It is a dead weight as far as educational or 
scientific progress is concerned. It keeps religion for 
those who are keen for it, a matter tinged with super- 
stition. The old characteristics of the Spanish inqui- 
sition and the intolerance of any other faith, still 
smoulder just below the surface." 

In spite of the dominance of the Catholic faith, 
which is supported by the Government and has the 
sympathy and allegiance of the leading classes, the 
majority of the men of the country seem to regard the 
church with indifference. "The women go," they say. 
In a goodly number of cities and towns of Peru I in- 
quired concerning the active part which the men took 
in church affairs and the answers were everywhere the 
same. They were to the effect that while, of course, 
the Catholic religion was the nominal religion of the 
country, the tendency of the manhood of Peru was 
largely towards free thinking, if not agnosticism. In 
a church service in one of the towns of southern 
Peru I counted seventy-five women and three men; 
although this proportion would not hold in every case, 
in services attended in at least half a dozen different 
sections, I found more than two thirds of the congre- 
gation composed of women. 

As far as the religion of the country is connected 
with morals, it would be difficult to say what influence 
the church is exerting upon the men of the country. 
Much has been written in derogation of the morals 
of the Peruvian men, and we have been told frequently 
enough that the home life here is on quite a different 



PERUVIAN CHARACTERISTICS 111 

basis than that of the United States, for example. 
Allowing much for exaggeration (and there has been 
undoubtedly considerable one-sided writing concerning 
this subject) there is no doubt but that the institution 
of marriage is not held in the same sanctity by Peru- 
vians as it is in certain other countries. Much larger 
freedom is given to the man who spends large portions 
of his time at his clubs and in amusements in which his 
wife cannot share. The traditional custom of semi- 
seclusion, which the women of this Spanish-American 
nation have held rigidly, has produced conditions simi- 
lar to those found in the Orient. No divorce being 
possible in this Catholic country, the women have 
found it necessary either to submit patiently or to close 
their eyes to a condition under which women of the 
United States, or any other Protestant country, would 
take refuge in the divorce court. 

Another noticeable feature among the middle and 
lower classes is the lack of the marriage ceremony, 
either civil or ecclesiastical. Some say that the ex- 
pense stands in the way, for this ceremony is usually 
attended with expensive festivities as well as with the 
necessity of fees to the officiating priest. This lack of 
a binding tie between man and woman, especially 
among the members of the lower classes, makes for 
looseness of living and also works particular hardship 
upon the children, who are frequently left for the 
mother to support, when the man passes on to another 
relationship. 

As to moral integrity and honesty in business, one 
finds varying opinions. The large Peruvian business 
firms are generally conceded to be trustworthy, accord- 



112 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

ing to the testimony of foreigners' who have dealt with 
them for many years. There is undoubtedly a grow- 
ing sense of responsibility on the part of business men 
in this country. Among the small shopkeepers, how- 
ever, one finds here, as in the Orient, two prices and 
in some cases, many prices. There seems to be little 
commercial integrity among the retail shopkeepers, and 
even the Peruvians will advise the foreigner that he 
should never pay the first price. I regret to say that 
this does not always refer to the shops on the side 
streets, as I had good reason to discover. I went into 
one of the largest optical and photographic supply- 
houses in Lima, situated on the main business street, 
and was charged three times the price for my pur- 
chases, as I learned afterwards, that I should have 
paid. 

But in spite of these weaknesses, the Peruvians are 
very likable people. They are kindly; they will go 
out of their way to help you or do you a favour. They 
make good friends, but it also must be added, bad ene- 
mies. Foreigners, who have lived for a long time in 
Peru, bear witness that they are very pleasant folk with 
whom to live, but amiable rather than practical. In- 
quiring of a certain European of long residence in one 
of the Peruvian ports the difference between Peruvians 
and Chileans, I received this answer: 

"I like the Peruvian better, but I prefer to do busi- 
ness with a Chilean. The Peruvian has better man- 
ners, but he is less efficient in a business way than his 
Chilean neighbour." 

It may be added that in a land where a music teacher 
finds it demeaning to carry his music roll to the house 



PERUVIAN CHARACTERISTICS 113 

where he is to sing in an evening's entertainment, re- 
quiring a servant to follow him with this small roll and 
wait outside for him to finish in order to carry the 
roll home; in a country where a student may not soil 
his hands with labour to help himself through college ; 
and where the beau ideal of a ten-dollar-a-week clerk 
is to dress up like a gentleman of leisure and go to the 
horse races — on gambling bent — the charge of _not be- 
ing an efficient business man would not carry with it the 
uncomplimentary stigma that it might in North 
America. It has been said that in the United States 
there is no human being so lonely or so miserable as 
the man "out of a job," but in Peru it would hardly 
be understood that a gentleman of leisure could ever 
be classed among the "undesirables." 

To fail in courteous gentlemanhood is to be declasse 
in this country, patterned after the Spanish school of 
courtliness. It is doubtful whether a better mannered 
people can be found anywhere on the face of the earth 
than here among the best classes of Peruvians. In 
our North American climate where directness and the 
absence of expressed feeling go together, we have been 
inclined to sniff at the politeness of the French, the 
Japanese and the Spanish, as being needless veneer, if 
not a thin veil to cover insincerity. The Peruvians, 
however, impress one as being really sincere in their 
politeness. Their amiability is charming and conta- 
gious. You find yourself falling in line and forgetting 
some of the northern brusqueness and practicality. 

A Peruvian gentleman spoke a word recently which 
might well be taken to heart by those of us in the 
United States who are over-proud of an aggressive 



114 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

efficiency which loses much of its power through its lack 
of appreciation of those amenities that are second 
nature to the Latin temperament, and which, we must 
admit, add an intangible something to life's relation- 
ships: 

"You in the United States," said my Peruvian friend, 
"are a wonderful people^ wonderful in your organisa- 
tion and practical sense; we in Peru are people of 
feeling and emotion. We live from the heart. The 
ideal is to unite American practicality with Peruvian 
feeling — either one alone spells failure." 

It must be admitted also that the Peruvian is a man 
of ideals, in the realm in which his temperament finds 
easiest expression. He loves music and poetry. I 
talked with a member of an old family in Lima who 
was engaged in building an opera house at the expense 
of $30,000. He is equipping this building with every 
modern device which would cater to the inculcation of 
the love of music among his countrymen. It is the 
first attempt of the kind that has been known in Peru, 
and the man who is spending his time, his money and 
his enthusiasm upon this undertaking said, "I do not 
expect this to be a paying venture. I am not thinking 
of the money-side of this building, but it is my desire 
to do something with my money to bring out and to 
maintain the strain of idealism in our people." 

The Peruvian men take off their hats when meeting 
one another on the street and handshaking is an omni- 
present institution. You may not be surprised to have 
your host shake hands with you two or three times, 
as a matter of course. A customer may shake hands 



PERUVIAN CHARACTERISTICS 115 

with a merchant from whom he buys a necktie, and he 
will be greatly offended if you do not allow him, as 
host, to put himself to all kinds of inconvenience in 
your behalf. 

In business this emotional and enthusiastic tempera- 
ment does not always work for permanency, The for- 
eigner will say usually that he finds the Peruvian strong 
to begin a new venture, but that he does not hold out 
in the face of obstacle as does the Anglo-Saxon. Theo- 
retically he knows what to do and cannot be surpassed 
in intelligent comprehension of the needs in a particu- 
lar case, but he fails to "carry through." He lacks 
what Napoleon called "two-o'clock-in-the-morning- 
courage." 

It may be because of the tendency to take life more 
easily than do men in the northern America that the 
chief end of the Peruvian youth is to become a politi- 
cian, an honourable gentleman's profession requiring 
but a few hours of work a day. 

Yet the tendency to use the office of a politician as a 
means for pecuniary profit, through "graft," has 
lessened of late. It may be because there are fewer 
spoils since the loss to Chile of the nitrate fields which 
are said to bring Chile a revenue of $90,000,000 
yearly. At any rate, one result of the Chilean war has 
been the new birth of patriotism in Peru, and signs 
of greater stability and honesty in government affairs 
are plainly evident. 

Quite apart from the utilitarian matters to which 
it is so easy to bring nations and men to book in these 
twentieth century days of progressive material effi- 
ciency, the man of Peru has a message of real value 



116 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

to his South American neighbours, as well as to his 
northern brothers, who find it easy enough to criticise 
him for the want of things they possess in abundance. 
It is the message of kindliness and the attention to 
those amenities of daily intercourse, without which 
dollars and dreadnaughts are alike inadequate to make 
the world a pleasant place in which to stay. An old 
lady who knew intimately James A. Garfield as Presi- 
dent and man, said to a friend after the martyred 
President's death, "I liked him; he was always so 
pleasant." 

The man of Peru has much to learn in matters of 
industrial proficiency from other nations; but in the 
realm of agreeableness and in studious attention to 
the fine art of living pleasantly with one's fellow men, 
the man of Peru can teach the world. 



CHAPTER VII 

NATURAL RESOURCES OF PERU 

"Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines, 
That on the high equator ridgy rise." 

HUMBOLDT said many years ago: "Peru is a 
beggar sitting on a hill of gold." 

While it would not be fair to the modern Peruvian 
to say that Humboldt was right relative to the first 
part of his definition of the Peruvians, no one who 
knows the stupendous resources of this old land of the 
Incas would deny the truthfulness of the last part of 
the assertion. In spite, however, of the vast resources, 
agricultural and mineral, of Peru, the country has been 
likened with some justice to a small boy who has money 
in the bank but is unable to get at it because he has no 
key. 

Here one finds in the various sections reaching from 
the low coast line on the Pacific to a height of more 
than fourteen thousand feet on the table lands of the 
Cordilleras, almost every known possibility of industry 
through the rich products of the soil. Sugar and cot- 
ton are among the most profitable of the coast enter- 
prises. One is told that in Peru the greatest cotton 
harvests in the world per unit of acre are obtained. 
Upland cotton in the Ganete valley furnishes an aver- 

117 



118 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

age of five hundred and fifty-three pounds per acre, 
and some places as high as nine hundred and sixty-eight 
pounds are being obtained, while the maximum of 1384 
pounds has been reached in the valley of Lambayeque. 
A high average in any one of our Southern states is 
308 pounds. 

One also discovers, somewhat to his astonishment, 
that the growing of sugar cane can be made a most 
profitable industry in the coast zone, and one is shown 
how the yield per acre of sugar in Peru is nearly double 
that of any of our sugar-producing states. The Presi- 
dent of the Republic owns and operates a sugar mill 
which is said to be one of the most enterprising and 
successful pieces of business to be found, not only in 
Peru, but in any other section of sugar enterprise. It 
is no unusual thing in this resourceful country to find 
great sugar haciendas employing from one thousand 
to twenty thousand workers. 

Here, as in India and in Egypt, the land is simply 
waiting for water, and capital invested in irrigation 
forms a most remunerative field. The area of this 
vast zone, capable of irrigation, is estimated at fifty 
million acres, of which not over two million acres are 
cultivated at the present time. 

As one goes inland to the great table lands of the 
Andes and elevated plateaus, although the region has 
been reached by two railroads, the chief means of 
transportation through the devious windings of ravines 
and mountain gorges is the llama and pack mule. 
Here one finds almost every known kind of mineral — 
copper, silver, gold, lead, quicksilver, coal, zinc, 
petroleum, sulphur, bismuth, cobalt and salt. The 



NATURAL RESOURCES OF PERU 119 

possibilities of this region, providing railroads, or even 
good country roads, can be furnished, are well nigh 
limitless. 

The most important formations of gold are found 
upon the eastern slope of the Andes, and it is estimated 
that one auriferous deposit in this region contains more 
gold than has ever been found in California. The 
famous deposits at Aporoma, several miles in length, 
are estimated to contain gold to the value of 
$200,000,000. You will be told how these mines were 
one time worked by the Incas and how the Inambari 
River and its tributaries are veritable gold pockets 
and also how the mountain regions of the Sierra proper 
are rich in quartz lodes. The scale upon which Peru 
is rich with this latter mineral is indicated by the fact 
that in the southern part of the country there is to be 
found a group of quartz lodes, ten of which cross 
a deep valley and ascend the slopes and traverse a 
high plateau. The outcrop of these lodes is said to 
be from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the lowest level of 
the valley while the lodes extend downward to unknown 
depths. 

The great difficulty in all of these mines is the lack 
of sufficient capital to install proper machinery and, as 
has been suggested, proper transportation. There are 
few more interesting sights for the traveller in Peru 
than the long train of llamas which are utilised espe- 
cially in the high altitudes in place of trains to trans- 
port these rich land resources. These animals will 
carry one hundred pounds and no more. If one hun- 
dred and one pounds are placed upon a llama's back, 
it is said he will lie down and refuse to move until the 



120 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

pack is lightened. He is called "the living scales.'* 
These trains of llamas form the branch railway lines 
on the high plateaus, carrying the freight to the in- 
terior from the railway stations. It is said to take 
one hundred and fifty llamas to carry the contents of 
the ordinary freight car. 

It is also in the mining of copper that Peru is 
to-day one of the great producers of the world. The 
Cereo de Pasco mines which lead in this industry were 
passed by an English concern to be taken up by a 
group of Americans who purchased them at a compara- 
tively low figure and are now carrying on an immense 
business, with an authorised capital of more than fifty 
million dollars. These are the highest mines in the 
world, worked at an elevation of over 16,000 feet 
At present there are about 200 Americans working at 
Cereo de Pasco, the remainder of the 6,000 men em r 
ployed in these mines being for the most part Peru- 
vians. This means a population of 30,000 people 
including the families, forming one of the most inter- 
esting communities to be visited in South America. It 
is a severe test upon the foreigner to work in these 
altitudes since mountain sickness (sorochee) is com- 
mon, and many of the Americans who have gone to 
these mines have been obliged to return. It is said that 
the high altitudes cause an enlargement both of the 
heart and the lungs, and that the Indians, who live 
continuously at these heights, are susceptible to tuber- 
culosis when they descend to the lowlands. 

Recently the government of Peru placed an export 
tax upon copper when the price of this commodity 
has reached or goes above 6$ pounds a ton. The 



NATURAL RESOURCES OF PERU 121 

present manager of the company informed us that at 
present they were paying $33.00 a ton export tax, but 
as long as copper sells for the present enormous price 
of 144 pounds sterling per ton the company was not 
inclined to find fault with the government tax. It was 
also stated by this manager that, in his judgment, 
capital was as safe in Peru as in any other part of the 
world. 

The traveller is astonished in going about this coun- 
try at the scarcity of coal because he is given to under- 
stand that the land is rich in coal deposits. At present, 
most of the coal comes from Australia or from Wales, 
while some of inferior quality is brought from Chile. 
It is stated that the bituminous coal region of Ogon is 
by far the greatest coal reserve in South America, and 
it is pointed out that this region is particularly valuable 
in that it lends itself to the establishment of a coaling 
station in the bay of Huaco. 

As far as the petroleum industry is concerned Peru 
is virtually at the beginning of the enterprise, although 
the Peruvian oil field is the second in the world as re- 
gards its extent. The lumber industry also has vast 
possibilities, especially on the slopes of the Andes on 
the east called the Montana. These wooded slopes, 
extending from the eastern sides of the Andes to the 
impenetrable forests of the Amazon, filled with navi- 
gable rivers, are to be entered by two trans-Andean 
lines of railroad. The forest reserve of this region con- 
tains trees of great size and beauty and is capable of 
furnishing plain lumber or hard wood of almost every 
known variety. In this region it is not uncommon to 
see an entire house built of black walnut, or of mahog- 



122 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

any. It is interesting to note that these forest lands 
now 1 sell for about twenty-five cents an acre. 

Here are also the great rubber forests, for the most 
part still unoccupied. The government cedes these 
lands ad perpetuam for the payment of two shillings 
for two and one half acres. The projection of rail- 
road lines into this region promises, a great future for 
both Peruvian lumber and rubber. 

Add to these great natural resources the tropical 
possibilities in coffee, cocoa, wheat, rice, alfalfa, and 
numerous other products that flourish in the warm and 
fertile region and it is clear that this country has been 
unusually blessed in the resources of its soil. 

In a conversation with President Pardo I was inter- 
ested to learn that the present government of Peru 
took great pride in the American industrial and mining 
establishments in this country. 

"We believe," said the President, "that we have a 
stable government now, and to those who would en- 
quire about the safety of business enterprises with us 
we would give as an example the enormous English and 
American firms and corporations that have been carry- 
ing on increasingly successful business in Peru, not only 
without government interference, but also with our 
sympathetic attitude and support." 

It is the time of times for the United States to con- 
sider Peruvian resources as an objective for American 
capital. This old country of the Incas is in a period 
of impotent transition, and the friendly sentiment 
which the Peruvians hold for Americans, together with 
the vastly increased trade with the United States be- 
cause of the European war, and the use of the Panama 



NATURAL RESOURCES OF PERU 123 

Canal, open a door of commercial possibilities unique 
in the history of these two republics. The American 
Consul of Lima, who informed us that Peru gave to 
the United States, even before the war in the year 
19 13, 6 per cent more trade than she gave to any other 
nation, also stated that the result of the present year 
of commercial intercourse would reveal a much greater 
percentage. 

It would seem a strategic and far-reaching policy for 
American capital and business to begin at once to assist 
Peru in discovering and making use of the limitless 
resources in her "hill of gold." 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE INDIAN OF PERU 

"Strike hands, my brother man, 
'Tis yours to paint the morning red 
That ushers in the grander day. 
So may each unjust cord be broke, 
Each toiler find a fit reward, 
And life sound forth a truer chord." 

ACCORDING to recent statistics the population 
of Peru comprises approximately four million 
people. This population is divided as follows : 
1,260,000 mestizos, or mixed races from intermar- 
riages of the whites with the Indians; 600,000 whites; 
100,000 negroes; 40,000 Orientals, and 2,000,000 
Indians. 

The great problem of Peru is the problem of the 
Indian who is not only numerically the important factor 
in the country, but who is also virtually the only sup- 
port of the vast majority of the population. It is a 
common saying everywhere that all Peru lives off the 
Indian. If the Indian were taken out of Peru to-day, 
the country would starve, at least unless the remaining 
portion of the population learned by necessity to culti- 
vate the land and to make a living. 

The ancient Inca Empire of which Cuzco was the 
centre and the home of the Inca kings, extended origi- 

124 



THE INDIAN OF PERU 125 

nally from beyond Quito to the southern coast of Chile, 
including what is now known as Ecuador, Peru and 
Chile, and these ancient people had here a civilisation 
in many respects more advanced and civilised than 
that of the Spanish adventurers who conquered them. 
When Pizarro came to Peru there were nearly eight 
million of these inhabitants of the Inca realm in Peru 
alone, industrious, law-abiding, practising progressive 
arts and having irrigated farms, traces of which are 
still to be seen along the high peaks of the Sierra table 
lands. Their old homes and fortresses, their temples, 
and their architecture reveal a state and quality of 
knowledge and skill resembling that found in the old 
Egyptian tombs and monuments. 

When the Spaniards came, not to colonise but to 
conquer and to exploit, the Indians were driven from 
their homes, the country in many instances went to 
waste, people becoming slaves of their ruthless masters 
who proceeded to make the quiet, tractable Indians 
into beasts of burden, killing them ruthlessly, whenever 
they opposed. 

The present evil traits of the Indian, his dishonesty, 
suspicion of the white man and much of his sloth have 
been the result of the conditions under which he has 
been controlled for four hundred or more years. Dur- 
ing the old Inca regime, such sins as lying, stealing and 
adultery were punishable by death, and the home life 
of these ancient people was far better in character 
than that generally found to-day among their suc- 
cessors. 

The suspicion that the Indian holds for the white 
man is pronounced, and it is only after continued proofs 



126 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

of his friendship that the white man can gain the con- 
fidence of these people who have been so continuously- 
wronged through the centuries. The average stranger 
who speaks to the Indian will hardly get an answer in 
Spanish from him; even if the Indian knows that lan- 
guage he will pretend that he does not know it, for 
fear some new device or demand of the white man 
will be practised upon him. 

A friend of mine who is accustomed to travel much 
among the Indians in Peru told me that it was difficult 
even to secure a fowl for his supper in an Indian vil- 
lage, since the Indians feared that he either would not 
pay them for it, or would play some trick upon them 
in relation to it. One time he found it necessary after 
offering the Indian a sole, or fifty cents, for a fowl that 
was worth twenty cents, to go out himself and shoot 
the coveted chicken; when the Indian saw what had 
been done, he came and asked my friend if he would 
give him forty cents for the fowl. On being asked 
why he had not been willing to take the proffered sole 
at the beginning he simply shrugged his shoulders, say- 
ing that he did not believe the white man meant what 
he said. He said he had never found truth in the 
white man. 

Frequently people have told me in Peru that it is im- 
possible to gain the friendship of the Indian because 
of the deep seated fear and suspicion which he has in- 
herited for those who have exploited him with regu- 
larity and his fathers before him for hundreds of years. 
Nevertheless you will be told by those people who 
know, that the Indian, of the interior especially, forms 
the most trustworthy labouring element in Peru to- 



THE INDIAN OF PERU 127 

day. He is hard working and frugal, living on a small 
patch of land which is frequently owned by the com- 
munity or by a large land holder. He will work day 
after day for his masters, receiving only ten cents in 
Peruvian money, which is equal only to five cents, gold. 
At the end of the week he receives an additional sti- 
pend, making his wages amount to about fifteen cents, 
gold, a day. In the case of the Indians who occupy 
land on the great estates of the Sierras (and there are 
often as many as four hundred families of Indians who 
live on a single large hacienda, as their fathers have 
for generations) the owners have the right to demand 
the labour of the Indian for virtually any work re- 
quired and at any time. At time of planting, weed- 
ing and harvesting, all the Indians are requisitioned to 
cultivate the great estates and when the owner wishes 
to send his produce to market, he has simply to call 
upon his Indians who respond with their trains of 
llamas carrying the produce many leagues to the near- 
est shipping place, without charge to the owner. 

While this seems at first sight nothing short of slav- 
ery, the lot of the Indians in these mountains is not 
so bad as it might seem. They have their own bits 
of land which they cultivate assiduously and which 
yield them a good living, and they have their own 
sheep, llamas and alpacas, and a certain number of 
cattle. Their grazing lands are apportioned to them 
and they are protected in their rights. There is no 
danger of their homes being taken from them. In 
fact the Indian in the interior is so wedded to the place 
where he and his fathers have lived for generations, 
that it is virtually impossible to move him from his 



128 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

home. When the land changes hands the Indians are 
sold with the land, and simply transfer their allegiance 
from one master to another. 

While in Cuzco, I had personal knowledge of a 
transaction involving the transfer of a great farm 
thirty miles square upon which there were living five 
hundred Indian families. Its seven hundred able bod- 
ied men constituted one of the chief assets of the farm, 
since, with these sons rooted to the native soil, the 
owner was certain of his labour and never would be 
troubled with strikes or problems relative to the fluc- 
tuation of wages. In these sections, moreover, the 
Indian impresses one as being much freer and happier 
than on the smaller individual portions of land nearer 
the large towns, where he is in continual trouble and 
often at the mercy of lawyers and lawsuits. I was 
shown a large tract of land filling a beautiful valley 
on the high plateaus of southern Peru which was owned 
formerly by the Indians. It is now possessed by three 
lawyers in Cuzco, who by clever manipulation have 
managed to embroil the Indians in lawsuit after law- 
suit, until these native owners have lost control of their 
original properties. It is a proverb in Cuzco that a 
rich lawyer is a rich farmer, for the first and constant 
aim of the lawyer is to get hold of as much of the In- 
dian's land as can be secured. 

There is no more picturesque sight to be seen in 
South America, if indeed anywhere in the Orient, than 
these Indians journeying on foot behind their long 
trains of llamas, laden with alpaca or wool on their 
way to the market place. A market place like that of 
Sicuani, where on Sunday many hundreds of Indians 



THE INDIAN OF PERU 129 

gather, leaving their llamas and burros corralled on 
the hillsides, while they throng the central place with 
their wares for sale, makes an unforgettable picture. 
The first impression is one of colour — colour every- 
where. It is one vast sea of variegated ponchos, 
shawls and head dresses. Strangely enough they all 
seem to consist with the peculiar brown of the Indian 
faces, and the harmony of colours under the blazing 
light of the semi-tropical sun can scarcely be dupli- 
cated anywhere else upon the globe. 

Women in gay dresses of red or blue or purple, are 
sitting in front of their little mats on which they dis- 
play the food for sale, or the socks which they have 
made, or the ponchos they have woven, and as they 
bargain with the passer-by their hands are always busy 
with the little spindle dangling from their arms on 
which they are spinning the wool from which they will 
make their socks or ponchos. They are never idle, 
these Indian women, as they trot along the paths be- 
hind their llamas, or as they herd their sheep on the 
hillsides, or as they come through the streets of Cuzco; 
you see that little spindle being twirled by, the hand 
that has become so used to the labour that the process 
is performed mechanically and seemingly without ef- 
fort. 

After the market is finished the Indian goes to his 
favourite chicheria, where in a great dark room, whose 
only light enters by the low doorway, he will sit upon 
a rude bench or on the earthen floor, and drink a 
glass of his national chicha, his food and drink com- 
bined, made from corn. This drink is said to be in- 
toxicating if used in great quantities, but its fermenta- 



130 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

tion is very slight, generally being drunk the same day 
it is made, and it takes a considerable amount to pro- 
duce intoxication. For ten cents the Indian will re- 
ceive a glass containing nearly a quart of the muddy 
brown liquid and a plate of "piquante," a stew made 
from vegetables and meat or fish, highly seasoned with 
red pepper. The Indian is not fastidious and does 
not resent the guinea pigs running around him as he 
eats his food, nor does he notice the smoke that arises 
in great clouds from the open fire which has no outlet 
except the room itself. He eats his piquante and 
drinks his chicha, then takes a few coca leaves, rolls 
them into a ball, puts a little lime in the middle of the 
ball and places it in his mouth, when he is ready for 
his homeward journey. 

His home is quite likely a rude mud, straw-thatched 
hut in a little village lying close up against the moun- 
tains in one of the valleys through which a stream 
rushes down from the melting snows of the lofty Si- 
erras. The typical dwelling is about eight or ten feet 
in width and ten or fifteen feet long. The doorway 
is so low that the ordinary person must bow his head 
to enter it. There are no windows and no chimneys, 
and virtually no furniture. In some of the huts there 
is a framework upon which the family sleep at night, 
but in the great majority of Indian homes in this sec- 
tion, men, women, babies and animals share the floor 
space and huddle together to keep warm on the cool 
nights in these high altitudes. A little mud stove, or 
three stones in the corner of the room, burns a peat 
that is found on the pampa, and the smoke from the 
fire blackens the roof of the hut and escapes as best it 



THE INDIAN OF PERU 131 

may through the doorway. There are one or two 
cooking pots, a jar for water, and perhaps a couple 
of dishes in which to empty the food, but fingers were 
made before modern utensils, and they are the chief 
resource of the Indian who dips his hand into the com- 
mon bowl. Just outside the hut is a little corral where 
the burros, the tiny lambs and the pigs enjoy a pro- 
miscuous intimacy with the family. 

The food of the Indian is simplicity itself, consist- 
ing of the ever present Indian maize, mutton and po- 
tatoes, all of which is often made into a thick soup, 
seasoned freely with red peppers. In the higher alti- 
tudes frozen mutton and frozen potatoes form the 
chief diet. The potatoes are frozen and refrozen, un- 
til all the liquid is eliminated, leaving only the nutri- 
tious part of the plant. The corn is parched and 
ground into a coarse meal with which they thicken their 
soups. Nearly every family keeps a few chickens 
which are eaten on feast days and pork also is appreci- 
ated evidently, as it is quite common to stumble over 
a pig when trying to enter the darkened dwellings of 
the Indians. The guinea pig is especially omnipres- 
ent, and his abundant fertility furnishes a cheap article 
of diet to the frugal Indian. 

Marriage among these Indians of the Sierras is not 
general, although the Indian chooses his mate at an 
early age and his loyalty to her and his family is usually 
lifelong and in striking contrast to conditions found 
among the cholas or mestizos occupying the towns and 
villages. You will be told constantly by those who 
live in the midst of these mountain tribes that there is 
very little immorality among them, and the spirit of 



132 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

co-operation existing between the man, woman and 
all the children in their common toil and simple pleas- 
ures is as beautiful as it is praiseworthy. 

Nor is the Indian free from romance. Indeed, a 
strong romantic strain runs through the character of 
these people of the hills. Often in riding along the 
mountain trails the traveller will see in front of him an 
Indian boy and girl walking along hand in hand, and 
as the rider approaches their hands will unclasp, and 
the same shy look will pass over their faces as one sees 
on the faces of youth in courting time in other lands. 
On a quiet night in some of these wonderful valleys 
the traveller may be sitting on the veranda of a great 
hacienda when there will float up to him the plaintive 
murmur of a flute, played in a minor key. The owner 
of the ranch will turn to you and say: 

"I see it's courting time. One of my Indians is 
serenading his lady love, down there in the Indian vil- 
lage. One of these days he will come to me and say, 
'Master, I want a plot of ground,' and I will go with 
him and choose his land and he will build his little hut, 
and there will be a new family on the estate." 

As far as the education of the Indian goes, there is 
at present much to be desired. Nominally there is 
compulsory education throughout Peru, but such edu- 
cation can not be enforced among the Indians because 
of the manner and the necessities of their life, even if 
the Government provided sufficient schools and teach- 
ers. In the larger towns and villages a rudimentary 
teaching is given to Indian children during certain 
months of the year, but as a rule the Peruvian seems to 



THE INDIAN OF PERU 133 

go on the principle that it is better to keep the Indian 
fairly ignorant in order that he may not get above his 
business of making a living for the rest of the Peruvi- 
ans. If the Indian was educated and began to think, 
the Peruvian might have to work, which would be a 
tragedy. Here and there, however, one comes across 
educated Indians who show signs of progressive lead- 
ership and some day it is hoped a Dr. Eastman will 
be raised up here in Peru to espouse the cause of the 
Indian [some man like Colonel Rondon of Brazil], 
building for him schools of industrial training, and 
raising up a new generation of intelligent and indus- 
trially-minded descendants of the Incas. 

With the coming of industrial training for these In- 
dians there should come also a lightening of the load 
of religious superstition which they are now carrying. 

The burdens which are bound upon the poor Indian 
by the priests who make him pay for birth, life and 
death, feast days and days of sorrow, all in the name 
of religion, are among the heaviest which he has to 
bear. Add to this burden of superstitious faith fois- 
ted upon him by his conquerors, the use of alcohol 
to which he has also been introduced by the white man, 
and one sees two of the chief obstacles in the way of 
the Peruvian Indian's present advance. 

The lack of knowledge regarding the outside world 
has thus far kept the Indian an inhabitant in an iso- 
lated existence, and his mountains and his animals are 
still the chief things which he knows. That he is as 
good and as capable as he is, considering his lack of 
opportunities and the manner in which he has been 
treated, is a revelation of the inherent qualities of a 



134 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

race of men worthy of the study and the sacrifice of any 
people truly interested in humanity. 

The red man of the Sierras has degenerated since 
the white man has touched him. The great question 
persists, when will the white man pay his debt to the 
Peruvian Indian by giving him the privilege of being 
a man? 



CHAPTER IX 

CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 

A voice oppression cannot kill 

Speaks from the crumbling arches still. 

Whittier. 

UDGING from many of the books written upon 
Cuzco and southern Peru, one might easily gain 
the impression that the chief and only attraction of 
this old Inca city existed in the big rocks from which 
the people in some pristine age constructed their 
houses and fortresses. Enough has been written con- 
cerning these poor old rocks to fill a geological li- 
brary. The reading to most people would get monot- 
onous from repetition, since it would run somewhat as 
follows : 

; 'These stupendous boulders were lifted to their 
places with no aid of modern machinery. They were 
laid without mortar, and so close together that you 
cannot insert a knife-blade between them (this knife- 
blade simile is invariably associated with the Cuzco 
rocks). The corners are rounded marvellously. Al- 
though thousands of square yards of these walls yet re- 
main, many have been ruthlessly destroyed by the ad- 
venturous Spaniards, or by later Peruvian vandals, 
etc." 

135 



136 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

There are many variations more or less verbose, 
but the above is the main text from which writers from 
Pizarro until now have preached their stone sermons 
anent Cuzco, and if the guidebook-loving traveller 
spends all his precious hours in this fascinating city of 
the Andean tablelands nosing about among the old tot- 
tering walls of very ordinary houses, and misses the 
real Cuzco of picturesque Indian life and modes of ex- 
istence reflecting the Middle Ages — let him not blame 
Cuzco, but rather the authors and grave-diggers who 
love the dead and dug-up things more than live peo- 
ple and present-day conditions of living. 

To me, an hour in the Plaza de las Armas of this 
City of the Sun, surrounded by the vast protecting hills 
that hold the old city of the Incas in their bosom, where 
one sits in a four-ringed circus of moving, colourful, 
primitive life, which no single spot I have ever visited 
on the wide face of the earth affords in a like degree, 
leaves a memory as unforgettable as it is impossible 
to delineate. A phantasmagoria of colour, of antiq- 
uity in architecture, of absolutely unusual specimens 
of humanity and animals ranging all the way between 
ponchoed and shawled Indian men and women of the 
far distant Sierras to the would-be modern cholos, 
wearing hats made in Germany; and from the two 
teams of mules that drag the Cuzco horse car to the 
long trains of lofty-necked llamas that sweep by you, 
each with his packful of alpaca from the high interiors. 

We called it a four-ringed circus, and so it is; as 
you sit in this great flower-filled square, more than 
11,000 feet above sea level, the semi-tropical sun shed- 
ding its warmth radiantly upon your head through the 



CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 137 

thin, transparent, cloudless air, you find yourself won- 
dering which way to face lest something of the ever 
strange, unfolding scenes escapes your gaze. One side 
of the square is lined by a row of little shops filled with 
"fifty-seven varieties" of merchandise. Among these 
predominate gaily-coloured saddles and diverse accou- 
trements for the burros and pack animals, with pro- 
fuse decorations of red and green and blue wool. Be- 
fore these shops sit Indian and cholo women, holding 
in their hands spindle spools which they manipulate 
dexterously during the intervals of trade, spinning the 
wool which, later they weave into the ponchos and caps 
and full skirts of the native dress. It interested me 
to learn that the riot of colour seen in these Indian 
dresses and ponchos was attributable to the famous 
aniline dyes that Americans find it difficult to import 
these days from overseas. Above these quaint places 
of merchandise in the top of the two-storied houses are 
homes, with elaborately carved balconies overhanging 
the street in old Spanish fashion, while above, the 
red-tiled roofs glitter in the sun, spreading over the 
sidewalks and supported by deep pillars. Here and 
there, through some opening, you will catch a glimpse 
of a patio within these houses, and a four-square clois- 
ter effect out of which the homes open to the sunlight. 
On another side of the plaza stands the ancient 
cathedral, built, as one is told, of the famous Inca stone 
and containing the bones of the brother of Pizarro 
and that Spanish conqueror's partner, Almagro. On 
the doors of the chapel of Santiago adjoining the 
cathedral, one can read the legend preserved in archaic 
sculpture of St. James coming down visibly on his white 



138 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

horse, standing with lance in rest to turn the tide of 
battle in favour of the Spaniards, thus witnessing the 
last throes of the famous Inca Empire. 

If you can divert your attention from the passing 
throng of travel from the hills that confront one on 
still another side of the square, you can study the re- 
markable fagade of the old Jesuit church, and the an- 
cient University of Cuzco, founded in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, buildings which are said to be connected by an 
underground passage, associated with many an historic 
intrigue in the old days of the conquistadores. 

These great piles of ancient masonry look straight 
away to the east, where the Cyclopean structure often 
called the ninth wonder of the world, the great mega- 
lithic fortress of Sacsahuaman, tops the hill, 700 feet 
above the city. There one climbs to behold the rock 
remains which guarded the aboriginal Inca Empire of 
Manco Capac, pristine king of the vast west coast of 
South America. Halfway up the slope an old Inca 
home can be seen, half hidden among the eucalyptus 
trees, while on the summit stands a cross bearing an 
inscription to the effect that to him who climbs the 
hill, kisses the crucifix and says a prayer at the foot of 
the cross, a hundred days of indulgence shall be 
granted. 

Here one can sit for hours and dream of the scenes 
that were enacted on these surrounding terraces over- 
looking the heart of the Inca city. It is a drama of 
pastoral life, for the most part, of which no Virgil has 
ever arisen to sing, — an epic poem as romantic and 
tragic as any siege of Troy caught in Homeric num- 
bers. 




MASKED DANCERS AT CARMEN ALTO, PERU, DURING CARNIVAL 







RUINS. PALACE OF THE INC A, CUZCO 



v. 



CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 139 

It was an agricultural empire, — this far-famed em- 
pire of the "Son of the Sun." It was a kingdom of 
labour and a nation that depended upon the land. On 
one great slope of hill which is now waving with golden 
grain, the Cuzconian will point out to you the place 
where, in order to dignify labour, the old Inca kings 
themselves were wont to initiate with their own hands 
the seasons of planting and harvest. The king Inca, 
amidst pomp and festival, would go to the terraces 
of the Colcompata and begin to break up the soil with 
a golden pickaxe, while the populace stood below in 
the famous square with uncovered heads. Later, when 
the maize and quinoa had ripened, he again went out 
amid the rejoicing of the multitudes to signallise the 
harvest time by plucking the first fruits of the high- 
standing grain. These harvests were invested with a 
sacredness akin to the worshipful wonder connected 
with the rising flood of the Nile for the ancient Egyp- 
tians; they were under the direct supervision of the 
Inca Son of Heaven, and seeds from this first harvest 
were distributed throughout the empire. 

Again, from this central gathering place of the de- 
scendants of the Incas, the traveller will be shown far 
on the heights a certain rounded corner of the road 
where the Indians, coming down from the high coun- 
try, catch the first glimpse of this beloved City of the 
Sun lying with her red tiles shining in the white light 
a thousand feet below. It is here that the native still 
halts as in bygone days, and removing his hat gazes 
down upon the city of his forefathers, murmuring in 
Quichua the half-prayerful greeting, "O Cuzco, great 
City of the Sun, I greet thee !" 



140 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

As one wanders out of this picturesque square, he 
meets on all sides strange and fascinating scenes. 
There are colonnaded sidewalks filled with shops, re- 
sembling a bit the souks of Tunis, where the small 
shop-keepers sell and barter with the Indian. It is 
colour, colour everywhere. The ponchos or blankets 
worn are slipped over the head through a hole in the 
middle, and are striped red and yellow, brown and 
blue — every colour of the rainbow. The Indian wears 
a little crocheted cap of red or yellow or some other 
bright colour, with little ear flaps that pull down over 
the side of his face, leaving his black hair as a set- 
ting for his swarthy features. His trousers are short, 
coming a little below the knee, slit up a certain dis- 
tance to facilitate his walking. There is always a 
gaily embroidered bag hanging from his waist in which 
he carries his coca leaves. This coca, which, he chews 
constantly, provides him virtually with food and drink 
in his long marches. It is mixed with ashes to bring 
out the properties of the alkaloid, somewhat as the 
East Indians mix lime with their betel nut. Although 
it is generally admitted that the prolonged use of coca 
befogs the mind of the Indian and becomes at last 
an ally of his ignorance and paganised religion to rob 
him of his enlightenment and his years, it does less 
injury to his motor faculties and brain than does the 
white man's alcohol; and its solace helps to mitigate 
the monotonous adversity of his chill and barren ex- 
istence. Even the missionary to these folk of the 
lofty tablelands is loath to take away this omnipresent 
cheekful of coca. The native of the Sierra will trot 
cheerily along for days with his heavy, back-breaking 



CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 141 

burdens, providing only that his coca holds out, but 
without it, his strength fails and even food is inadequate 
to supply his drooping spirits. 

The Indian women of Cuzco, who abound on every 
side, wear a very full skirt of hand-woven wool, reach- 
ing to their bare, brown ankles. Many dresses have 
a border of a contrasting colour. They are particu- 
larly fond of all shades of red, from the brightest 
cerise to the deepest cardinal, and over their shoulders 
they wear a shawl of another shade of red or brown. 
In this shawl the labouring woman carries her burden, 
whether it is the baby or the vegetables she buys from 
the market, or the chickens she is delivering to a Cuzco 
customer. On her head she wears a flat hat with an 
unturned rim, and this is as showy as she can afford. 
Many of these hats are covered with tinsel embroid- 
ery. Like most of the Cuzco inhabitants of the lower 
classes, she goes barefoot or wears a crude sandal. 
Skirts are added, one over the other, according to the 
temperature, and one is reminded of the saying in 
common use in China as to the degree of cold: It is 
"one-coat weather," or it is "five-coat weather." 

Bathing in Cuzco is evidently a lost art. When the 
rains begin during the first week of November it has 
become customary in modern times for the people to 
take their annual bath. It is really a kind of "Fes- 
tival of the Bath," and it is said that a good propor- 
tion of the inhabitants get pneumonia as a result, so 
unaccustomed are they to this civilised exercise. The 
missionaries will tell you that one of the first evidences 
of a man's conversion is that he takes a bath. 

The custom of bathing is not popular even with the 



142 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

better classes of Cuzco, the people connecting the con- 
tact with water almost superstitiously with the contrac- 
tion of disease. We were told by an English trained 
nurse of her advice to a woman who came to her for 
medical help. The nurse prescribed nine baths for 
the patient, and the obedient Cuzconian took the whole 
nine in one day! 

The Cuzco market will not soon be forgotten by the 
foreigner who sees it. It is fairly alive with a swarm- 
ing mass of picturesque humanity, composed of In- 
dians and cholos mixed in marvellous promiscuity. 
Women seem to be the owners of the stalls, their wares 
being placed on mats on the ground. All manner of 
vegetables are sold, onions and red peppers predom- 
inating. Along the edges of the market place are 
dry goods stalls, the wares hanging up so as to be 
plainly visible to the would-be purchasers; the brown 
clay jars used by the Indians, some of them copies of 
the old vessels found in the Inca graves, are everywhere 
for sale. 

Fortune tellers abound and are invariably sur- 
rounded with groups of women. On one side we en- 
countered an enterprising Spaniard who had set up a 
stall where his trained birds at his call pick out a small 
envelope for sefior or senorita, which is supposed to 
contain infallible destiny. There are little religious 
punch and Judy shows from which the Church reaps 
considerable profit, while on all sides are beggars, and 
small, keen-eyed cholo boys who follow the tourist, of- 
fering their services as guides and repeating the mon- 
strous exaggerations concerning Cuzconian relics. 
These little urchins are very clever, and they know 



CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 143 

that the foreigner is looking for antiquities; conse- 
quently everything they show one is "antigua, muy 
antigua." One clever little chap followed us around 
the market, and noticing that we stopped to examine 
a basket of ordinary black beans, which are one of the 
chief articles of diet, came up to us with a serious look 
on his face, but with a roguish twinkle in his black 
eyes, took up one of the beans and said, "Antigua, 
muy antigua, senor!" 

No one can remain long* in Cuzco without realis- 
ing that this city was the seat of the Inca religion, a 
city filled with temples dedicated to the worship of the 
celestial luminaries. It was to Cuzco that the entire 
Inca population journeyed on pilgrimages for worship, 
much as the Mohammedans to-day travel to Mecca, 
and Hindus to the shore of their Mother Ganges. 
Upon these temples was showered the largess of the 
entire land, and the Temple of the Sun, which had few 
rivals in its richness and glorious worship, was justly 
called "The Place of Gold." Although there are re- 
mains of many temples in and about Cuzco, the Temple 
of the Sun is of predominant interest. A portion of 
the original wall is standing, and the mediaeval-looking 
monks who show you about preserve something of 
the ancient romance and glory clinging to this Cuzco 
temple. 

A vivid picture of the extravagant richness of the 
Temple of the Sun has been given by Prescott, the 
historian : 

"The interior of the temple was the most worthy of 
admiration. It was of enormous dimensions, thickly 
powdered with emeralds and precious stones. It was 



144 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

so situated in front of the great eastern portal that 
the rays of the morning sun fell directly upon it at 
rising, lighting up the whole apartment with an efful- 
gence that seemed more than natural, and which was 
reflected back from the golden ornaments with which 
the walls and ceilings were everywhere incrusted. 

"Gold, in the figurative language of the people, was 
'the tears wept by the sun,' and every part of the in- 
terior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and 
studs of the precious metal. The cornices which sur- 
rounded the wall of the sanctuary were of the same 
costly material, and a broad belt or frieze of gold let 
into the stone work encompassed the whole exterior of 
the. edifice." 

It seemed the irony of conquest that this resplendent 
golden image of the sun, which had looked down upon 
countless generations, should have been ruthlessly gam- 
bled away in a night by one of the Spanish cavaliers to 
whom this treasure fell as his share of the looted 
temple. Even to-day a typical gambler in Spain is 
described in a proverb as one who follows the Span- 
ish adventurer Leguizano: "He plays away the sun 
before sunrise." 

Not only in the ruins of these ancient temples, but 
in almost every turn in the narrow cobblestone streets 
in Cuzco, one is reminded of the sad story, written in 
blood, the story of the iron conquest of Inca Peru by 
the heroic but conscienceless knight errants of the Span- 
ish sixteenth century. Yet the place which the trav- 
eller will be shown to-day, where the Pizarros be- 
headed the Inca lords and nobles, was also the tragic 
place of decapitation of the losing Spanish adventur- 
ers, Almagro, his son and his lieutenants, who were 



CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 145 

-worsted in their mad search for gold. Cuzco was the 
particular scene of the arch barbarity and fraud per- 
petrated upon these peaceful inhabitants by the Con- 
quistadores, who have left a stain never to be effaced 
from Spanish arms in the New World. Few adven- 
turers have equalled in courage, capacity or cruelty the 
Pizarros, but the glitter of the gold on the Cuzco tem- 
ples proved to be for them and for their descendants 
but the shell of the pearl of great price; and Spain 
to-day is revealing the sign of this distorted strain of 
humanity, reaping her reward as one of the backward 
and impoverished nations. 

No one can journey through this land of the In- 
cas, behold the great roads and aqueducts, see the 
scarred faces of the mountains which were in other 
centuries cultivated to the very summits, realising that 
the irrigation of the present day is still carried through 
the trenches that old Inca hands prepared, without 
feeling a high sense of respect for this people, who 
antedated the Spanish conquest and, in many respects, 
were superior to their victors. In those ancient days 
such vices as now fasten themselves upon the Indians 
and have become their second nature were virtually 
unknown. Lying, stealing and adultery were punish- 
able by death in the Inca reign. Instead of the pres- 
ent condition of drunkenness and sloth too apparent 
in many of the Indian communities, the old ancestry 
showed sobriety and an industry that rarely has had 
its equal anywhere on the face of the earth. Is it to 
be wondered that one finds certain old families or tribes 
directly descendant from the Inca kings holding them- 
selves proudly aloof and bearing in their faces and 



146 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

general attitude a conscious dignity of lineage? These 
disdain to have association with the diluted stock that 
now so largely has become the servile vassal of the 
semi-white man. 

The brown faces of the Indians who follow their 
llamas through the dusty streets of Cuzco give food 
for thought. They are dark, sorrowful, sombre faces, 
and reflect the unspeakable tragedies that the last four 
centuries have wrought upon the natures of a once 
noble race of men. These people efface themselves in 
the presence of the white man, turning out to give him 
space, as a pariah might make a wide circle around 
a Brahmin in India. They work for twenty-five cents 
a day, or are impressed for long periods of labour 
for the price of the coca leaves and alcohol that the 
land-owner or the gangster may give them. This long- 
suffering race, upon which all Peru lives at present, 
and upon whose ignorance and superstition unworthy 
ministers of the Roman Church thrive and grow ar- 
rogant; these are the tillers of the soil and keepers of 
sheep and alpaca on the cold, windy slopes of the 
pampas, where white men cannot live. They dwell 
in vermin-infested huts that are breeding places of ty- 
phus and a dozen deadly forms of human destruction, 
seeing ninety per cent of their children die before they 
are two years of age. These are the sad descendants 
of those 200,000 Incas, who inhabited Cuzco when 
Pizarro came to loot and to kill, and carry away out 
of the Cuzco temples alone $100,000,000 in gold treas- 
ure, giving in return a destiny of labour and slavery, 
which one day will rise to haunt and besmirch the name 
of Spain. 



CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 147 

In the cathedral, and, in fact, in all of the forty or 
more churches of Cuzco, where barely 20,000 inhab- 
itants now remain of the once populous city, the trav- 
eller will see the pathetic vision of the Indian bowing 
till his head touches the stone floor, his face a study of 
abject fear and ignorant awe. For several mornings 
we were awakened at an early hour in our hotel in 
Cuzco by the din of explosives about a church near 
at hand. Upon inquiring the cause of such celebra- 
tion, we were informed by an old resident of the place 
that this was a feast given by a certain Indian who 
had been selected by the priests to be honoured by 
paying the expenses of several days of festivities, in 
which a large number of people joined. The cost of 
this ornate and noisy festival was upwards of $250, 
and the Indian [to whom this amount represents a 
fortune] was obliged to borrow and also use all his 
life's savings. It meant placing himself in slavish 
bondage for the remainder of his days, in order to be 
thus honoured in the name of religion. 

"But if he should refuse to comply with this request 
from the priest?" I asked. "Oh," was the answer, 
"he would not dare to refuse, and if he did his lot 
could be made unbearable." 

In spite of the fact that the scales of justice seem to 
have been held so unevenly by his rulers in Peru, the 
strength of the race is revealed in many ways. On this 
small bit of land in the fastnesses of the high ranges 
about the City of the Sun, the Indian lives an inde- 
pendent and often a happy existence. He raises maize 
and potatoes on the uplands, and in the valleys, watered 
by mountain streams and warmed by the wonderful 



148 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

half-tropic sun (for Cuzco is only thirteen degrees 
south of the equator), he harvests his oranges and 
coca and the many vegetables which he brings across 
the long trails to sell at the Cuzco market. Indeed, 
there were few visions more impressive to me in this 
region than the sight of waving fields of barley and 
thriving potato patches, grown successfully on these 
Alpine heights 12,000 feet above the sea, in plain view 
of mountains wreathed with eternal snow. Nature at 
least has not abandoned the South American Indian. 
She has left him his herds of llamas, his fawn-coloured 
vicunas, his merinos and alpacas, animals which refuse 
to thrive below the wind-swept, dreary moors of the 
Sierra desolation; and there about his thatched adobe 
hut he folds his precious animal companions in rude 
farmyards fenced with stones. 

Scattered on the slopes of the Sierras are occasional 
villages composed of these thatched huts, of which the 
little town of Asquia Alta is a typical example. Its 
name is taken from the irrigation trenches through 
which the water flows on either side of the narrow 
streets, fed from the melting mountain snows far back 
in the Sierra range. This primitive settlement — 
"High Water" — was more interesting to me than the 
cities, for here one sees life as it was far back in the 
days of the Incas. It is a page out of the Book of the 
Past, and its writing is printed deep on the lineaments 
of the people, as upon their customs and dwellings. 
The very animals have a prehistoric look; and as we 
walk through tortuous lanes that serve for streets to 
divide the straw-thatched homes, they gaze at us stu- 
pidly, with the wonder of other centuries in their eyes. 



CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 149 

The houses — can we call them homes? — consist 
usually of a single room, mud floors, no windows, an 
aperture serving as a door which is often little more 
than the mouth of a cave. One must stoop to enter, 
and then a strange miscellany greets one, a lot of 
primitive pots and kettles in the corner around a smok- 
ing fire built around three stones. At cooking times, 
there being no chimneys, the place reeks with the min- 
gled smoke and odour of burning flesh. It is neces- 
sary to walk circumspectly lest one step on a sprawling 
baby, or get tangled up with several dogs, chickens, 
or snoring pigs — all of which claim their common 
rights with the numerous members of the family to 
the promiscuous domesticity. These cholo huts, which 
serve as coverts from the cold of the South American 
winters, are chiefly bedrooms and kitchens and stables 
— ensemble — for as soon as the sun of the tropics, 
which these people's ancestors worship for good and 
sufficient cause, floods the narrow defiles of these moun- 
tain villages, every one is out of doors. The stronger 
members of the families, both men and women, are off 
to the fields with their mules whose sides contain the 
machetes and farming utensils, while the doorways are 
black with children of all ages and degrees of filthi- 
ness. Here and there is an old Indian woman mend- 
ing a poncho, or a mother with a nursing infant at her 
breast. A walk through the streets of Asquia Alta 
is like walking in a dream. There is absolutely noth- 
ing to suggest anything with which you have been fa- 
miliar save the gurgling rush of the water in the irri- 
gation trenches and the penetrating warmth of the 
blazing sun upon your head. 



150 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

These little Peruvian villages are not without their 
gladness and amusements, and almost every other one 
of the adobe huts flies a flag from its roof to signify 
that chicha and piquante are to be enjoyed there; the 
first is a drink made out of corn, while the second is a 
kind of stew made of vegetables and highly seasoned 
with red peppers. These small eating and drinking 
houses remind one of the coffee houses of the Arabs in 
North Africa. The primitive surroundings are sim- 
ilar, the people sitting without lights save perhaps the 
feeble flame of a candle, which casts flickering shad- 
ows on the dark faces of the men about the small, low 
table upon which stand the large chicha glasses. 

Sunset hour, or "cow dust time," marked the por- 
tion of the day when I enjoyed most sauntering through 
the lanes and narrow trails that stood for streets in 
Asquia Alta. Diminutive burros loaded with great 
bundles of maize, the national food of the Indian and 
the cholo of the high altitudes of Peru, patter along 
in single file through the dusty paths that lead from 
the fields. The farmer whom we saw a while ago 
ploughing the steep hillside with a crooked stick, now 
appears over the brow of a hill, driving his faithful 
oxen home for the night, he himself carrying the yoke. 
Every door is filled with children, who, with the women 
and innumerable dogs, stand to greet the toilers com- 
ing home from the mountain farms, tilled in the self- 
same manner by the ancient Inca ancestors centuries 
before. The six o'clock bells in the distant cathedral 
at Arequipa are sounding the hour of evening prayer, 
and for a moment the tired peasants halt with uncov- 
ered heads. The little village is growing dark rap- 



CUZCO AND THE INCAS OF TO-DAY 151 

idly now, though the wonderful semi-tropical sun is 
painting the great guarding El Misti at the east of the 
town with one last golden wave of light. In another 
half hour our mountain hamlet will have lost its in- 
spiration to live, for the sun which the old Incas wor- 
shiped will have changed watch with the cold night 
winds that sweep down from the snowy summits of the 
Andes. 

Already the inhabitants shiver along the winding 
streets clad in their red ponchos. You can begin to 
hear the doors of the rude abiding places which these 
people call "home," being pushed together for the 
night (for sundown is bedtime in the Cordilleras). 
As you pass down through the empty streets, the si- 
lence of the hill town is only broken by the bark of a 
dog or the cry of a child on the borderland of dreams. 
Weary hard working peasant Asquia Alta is being 
hushed to the dreamless sleep of tired bodies by the 
lullaby of the singing waters — waters that flow by the 
thatched huts in the irrigation trenches from the eter- 
nal snows that freeze and melt on the peaks of the 
distant Andes. 

There may be somewhere in the world more prim- 
itive pastoral villages than those the traveller finds upon 
the sunlit sides of the towering Cordilleras; but I have 
found no sections of the earth where the life of na- 
tional peasantry is more captivatingly picturesque, 
where Time seems to have stopped in its course, in or- 
der to remind us of days that are dead. 



CHAPTER X 

LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INCAS OF PERU 

When Manco Capac pledged the Spanish Commander in a 
golden goblet of the sparkling Chicha, the humiliation rather 
than the triumph of the Peruvian Incas was impressive. The 
armed foot of the conqueror trod the Cuzco streets. It was the 
death knell of the glory of the children of the Sun. The 
annunciation was a sad and miserable pageant. The soldiers 
of the Cross had vanquished the children of the Sun — a doubt- 
ful exchange. — Prescott. 

MONG the ancient populations of the South 
American countries the Incas of Peru and the 
Aztecs of Mexico are of the greatest interest, both be- 
cause of what they accomplished in the way of civilisa- 
tion, and also by reason of the influences they exerted 
on the generations following. No one can appreciate 
truly Peruvian life and customs, without a knowledge 
of the old races which were conquered but not an- 
nihilated by the Spanish cavaliers. These Indians who 
still make up half of Peru's present day population, 
were descended from this old Inca stock, and their cus- 
toms and the country they inhabit reflect on all sides 
the powerful force of this ancient culture. 

Like the Aztecs in the North, the Incas chose as 
their chief seats of empire the elevated tablelands of 
*he great mountain ranges that have had such detey- 

152 



LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INCAS 153 

mining influence upon the inhabitants of these coun- 
tries. Those who by chance are interested students 
of the manner in which the configuration of the land 
has been reflected in the character of the people whose 
lot has been cast upon it, will find rich material for 
study in South America. 

The Incas differed from the Aztecs of Mexico in 
their military laws and life, showing far less philosophy 
and a greater display of common humanity towards 
prisoners taken in war. The Inca realm, indeed, was 
a benevolent and patriarchal monarchy in which the 
Inca lord and his nobles surrounded their subjects with 
a kind of parental solicitude, claiming from them in 
return absolute obedience and the readiness to obey 
commands of whatever sort imposed upon them by 
the government. 

The Incas were more or less constantly in war, sub- 
jecting to their organised and complicated scheme' of 
government the ruder tribes on their borders. They 
showed remarkable interest in combining these con- 
quered nations in the Peruvian monarchy, and were 
careful to warn their soldiers against committing un- 
necessary outrages on the persons or the property of 
the tribes conquered. One of the Peruvian princes is 
quoted as saying, "We must spare our enemies or it 
will be our loss, since they and all that belongs to them 
must soon be ours." Like the ancient Romans, the 
Incas are said to have gained quite as much by the 
policy of clemency as by the victory of arms. 

Military service was virtually compulsory among 
the Incas, every Peruvian having reached a certain age 
being likely to be called to bear arms. Several times 



154 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

each month there were regular drills held for the in- 
habitants of the villages, and the soldiers thus trained 
made altogether a force amounting to at least 200,000 
men. These troops were divided into bodies similar 
to the modern battalions and companies and the of- 
ficers rose in rank from the lowest subaltern to the 
Inca noble, who was commander in chief of the army. 
The Inca arms used against the Spaniards at the 
time of the Conquest consisted chiefly of bows and 
arrows, darts, lances, battle axes, slings and a short 
sword. The Incas used at the ends of their spears 
and arrows copper or bone points, and the weapons 
of the Inca lords were often mounted with gold or sil- 
ver. On their heads the Indians of the higher orders 
wore casques made of wood or the skins of wild ani- 
mals, which head dress was usually surmounted by the 
brilliant plumage of birds. The ordinary soldiery 
used the regulation costume of the provinces, wearing 
a turban or a roll of different coloured cloths about 
their heads, and carrying a shield or buckler. There 
was also worn a close tunic of quilted cotton on the 
part of the soldiery. The ensign under which these 
people marched to battle was a glittering device of 
the rainbow, suggestive of the fact that these were 
"Children of the Skies." The soldiers were clothed 
and fed by the industry of the people and any viola- 
tion of the property or the persons of the inhabitants 
by the soldier, was punished with death. Along the 
great roads were magazines of stores filled for uses 
of the army, and which, when obtained by the con- 
quering Spaniards, maintained the armies of the ad- 
venturers for a long period. In spite of the splendid 



LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INCAS 155 

organisation of the Incas, their character as fighting 
men was greatly inferior to the Auracanians of Chile, 
who even yet, as it is commonly reported, have never 
been actually conquered by the white man. 

In the matter of religion the Incas furnished a re- 
markable exhibition of a people whose sovereign was 
supposed to hold a divine commission and to be pos- 
sessed of a divine nature. The violation of the law, 
therefore, was not only to insult the majesty of the 
throne, but it was also sacrilege. The worship of the 
Sun was the central principle of the Inca religious pol- 
ity, and their belief approximated more nearly to a 
spiritual worship than did that of any other Indian 
nation of South America. 

It was, however, in the agricultural and mechanical 
arts, together with the laws that made for the social 
inter-relations of the Incas and their followers, that 
this nation is particularly worthy of study by those in- 
terested in the making of states. 

The laws were comparatively few and simple be- 
cause the country was owned by the government and 
the right of really owning property was denied to the 
inhabitants. The whole territory of the Inca Empire 
was divided into three parts — one portion for the 
Sun, another for the Inca or the ruler, and the last 
for the people. The revenue of the lands of the Sun 
was used for the support of the religious observances, 
the building of temples, and for a priesthood of vast 
numbers. The Inca's lands brought him vast riches, 
and these were used by him for the exigencies of the 
government; one chronicler maintains that virtually all 



156 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

that he received went back to the people and to the 
country for their general welfare. 

The people's land was divided per capita in equal 
shares. Each newly married couple was given, accord- 
ing to Garcilasso, a "fanega" and a half of land; a 
"fanega" being as much land as could be planted with 
a hundredweight of Indian corn. A similar quan- 
tity was added for each male child born and half the 
quantity for each female. We found in the region of 
Cuzco that this custom was still followed in part, the 
landlord using similar measures in apportioning the 
maize-raising land situated in the valleys. 

No more effectual agrarian law has been known in 
history than that by which the Peruvians built up their 
vast, well regulated agricultural realm. There was a 
reapportionment of land each year, but as a rule, it was 
said that the people were allowed to remain upon their 
own land, which to all intents and purposes was as good 
as ownership. 

The cultivation of the lands of the Inca which was 
accomplished by the entire population in a body, par- 
took more of a festival than of the work-a-day world. 
The inhabitants were summoned at daybreak by a proc- 
lamation from some great eminence and men, women 
and children, dressed in their finest apparel, and orna- 
mented according to their love of display, gathered to- 
gether as to a jubilee. They went through the labours 
of the day, to the music of their popular chants and 
ballads commemorating the heroic deeds of their il- 
lustrious Incas. Many of these soft and beautiful na- 
tional airs were set to music by the Spaniards after 
the conquest. 



LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INCAS 157 

It must not be thought, however, that this Inca des- 
potism, patriarchal and mild as it may seem from one 
point of view, was lacking in the rigorous execution 
of its laws. Punishment was quick and to the point 
and the death penalty was inflicted for crimes of theft, 
murder, adultery, blasphemy against the Sun, and 
malediction of the Inca. 

To burn a bridge was also an act punishable by 
death, while removing landmarks, or turning away 
from a neighbour's land for one's own benefit the water 
that flowed down from the mountains in the wonder- 
fully well made irrigation trenches, brought down upon 
the victim's head severe punishment. Of all crimes re- 
bellion against the "Child of the Sun" was the supreme 
one, and a city or province that thus arose in opposi- 
tion to the sovereign of the land, was immediately laid 
waste and its inhabitants destroyed. It must be added 
that the infliction of the punishments by the Incas was 
far less ferocious and attended with less cruelty than 
was the case with the Aztecs. The execution of the 
laws in this regard by these ancient peoples, compares 
favourably with the destructive violence of their Span- 
ish conquerors. 

It was the aim of the Inca, as it was for so many 
generations with the Moslem, to forcibly convert at the 
point of the sword the nations which he vanquished. 
It seemed usual also that nations thus becoming ac- 
quainted with the mild, and in many respects, beautiful 
worship of the Incas who associated the heavenly bod- 
ies with a deep religious awe, became irretrievably at- 
tached to this religion. It was a long time before the 
Roman Catholic Spaniards were able to gain much 



158 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

inroad upon the religion of the Incas who failed to 
see in the belief of their conquerors indications of a 
more desirable faith than that which they themselves 
professed. According to custom it was usual for the 
Spanish inquisitors of these early days to present, with 
a doubtful show of benevolence, their faith as the last 
resort for the members of the Inca nobility, whom they 
sacrificed often with cruel death-penalties in the midst 
of their own people. Atahuallpa, the reigning Inca 
who was treacherously entrapped and killed by Pi- 
zarro, when led out to his execution was accompanied 
by a friar who tried to convince him of the advantage 
of the Christian faith. The dignified and supreme 
head of these mountain people was as calm and unruf- 
fled in the hour of death as in the day of his reigning 
prosperity; shortly before the dissolution of his vast 
empire, he spoke thus to the friar of Pizarro : 

"For my faith, I will not change it. Your own God, 
as you say, was put to death by the very men whom he 
created, but mine," said he pointing to his Deity, then 
sinking in glory behind the Cordilleras, "My God still 
lives in the heavens, and looks down upon his children." 

The Incas' philosophy concerning success and happi- 
ness in life revolved around the two principles of la- 
bour and religion. Every member of this kingdom was 
obliged to work, and idleness was a crime in the eye of 
the law. It is notable that there were no mendicants, 
and there is no record of a famine in Peru in Inca 
times. The government made work for the people to 
assure their constant industry. It built great roads 
upon which the traveller may now journey in the moun- 



LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INCAS 159 

tainous sections of the country, and obliged the inhab- 
itants to carry stones for their dwellings and thorough- 
fares from Cuzco to Quito, a service that in these times 
was attended with almost insuperable difficulty but 
which helped to keep the nation busy. Some of these 
roads are estimated as being built from 1500 to 2000 
miles in length, and were carefully organised by posts 
along the entire distance, at a distance of less than five 
miles from each other. By means of these post houses, 
remains of which may still be seen, information could 
be carried to the Inca ruler from the most remote sec- 
tion of his wide domain by swift runners, who were 
called "chasquis," at the rate of 150 miles a day. 

The marriage customs were unique, an annual day 
of the year being set apart for marriage. Males of 
twenty-four years of age and women of eighteen or 
twenty were called together in the great square of their 
respective towns and villages throughout the Empire. 
The Inca presided in person over the assembly of his 
own kindred, and placing their hands together de- 
clared them man and wife, while lesser officials offici- 
ated in a similar way in the different districts. The 
consent of the parents was deemed necessary to make 
the marriage valid, and the preference of the parties 
was considered. The government provided the dwell- 
ing and the prescribed portion of land for the newly 
married couple, and the days associated with the an- 
nual marriage period were filled with festivities; iri 
short as one historian has put it, "There was one uni- 
versal bridal jubilee throughout the Empire." 

The Inca ruler was allowed larger latitude, and 
like the ancient Mohammedan rulers, counted his wives 



160 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

and concubines by the hundreds, the most beautiful 
women of the Empire being honoured to become mem- 
bers of the royal household. It was also the custom 
here, as in old days in India, for many of the wives of 
the Inca to immolate themselves upon his bier at the 
time of his death. 

The analogy of many of these customs and laws to 
those of the Chinese and Hindus is striking, and 
would seem to give reason for the belief of many that 
these people had "an Asiatic cradle-land." The des- 
potic government resembled eastern Asia; the patri- 
archal sway of the sovereign, together with the im- 
plicit obedience to authority, the reverence for ancient 
usage, and the invincible patience were not unlike tra- 
ditions of the Chinese race. 

Their worship of the heavenly bodies and the ele- 
ments of nature, and especially their division into 
castes, find abundant analogies in Hindustan, while 
their pottery, their construction of buildings by the 
use of enormous stones fitted by hand, and their atten- 
tion to the preservation of the bodies of their rulers 
after death, reveal considerable resemblance to the 
ways and methods of the ancient Egyptians. 

The characteristics of the Incas of Peru were most 
divergent from the traits and the ideals found in North 
America, in the absolute and unmitigated control ex- 
ercised by the rulers over their subjects. The Empire 
of this ancient race rested upon the Inca as both the 
law giver and the law. He was the servant and rep- 
resentative of Divinity; indeed, he was Divinity itself 
to these people. There has seldom been a scheme of 
government in the history of men enforced with such 



LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INCAS 161 

sovereign sanction or penetrating more oppressively, 
as it would seem to an independent mind, into the pri- 
vate and domestic conduct of its vassals. To be sure 
there was commiseration such as a parent might have 
for its impotent offspring, but the power of free 
agency which has been considered usually to be the in- 
born and inalienable right of every human being, and 
without which morality can hardly exist, was utterly an- 
nihilated by this system of government. It is notable 
that with all the advances which this national life in- 
augurated, the Empire of the Incas, perhaps the most 
absolute despotism known to history, has passed away; 
meanwhile the other type of government based on the 
individual capacity and freedom of human beings to 
work out for themselves the problem of existence, is 
still increasing its sway around the world. There are 
some who would attribute this absence of the sense of 
personal rights and the presence of a slavish obedience 
to authority, as the chief reasons for the easy fall of 
this Empire before a handful of Spanish adventur- 
ers, who represented in every fibre of their being the 
principle of individual initiative and courageous inde- 
pendent action. 

The traveller who goes through Peru to-day and 
meets on the old broad Inca highways the sad and 
often sullen-faced Indian, will attribute the woes of 
these people to the misgovernment of modern Span- 
ish Peru. Undoubtedly one will be right in believing 
that far too little attention has been given to the de- 
scendants of this early race of aborigines on the part 
of their modern conquerors. Yet we can not but be- 
lieve that the far away root of their servility and sub- 



162 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

servience lies in those seeds of absolute and unadul- 
terated sovereignty planted in the hearts of their an- 
cestors many centuries ago. 

The crying need in modern Peru as far as the In- 
dians at least are concerned, is that of reawakening 
through education and a virile religion, the dormant 
principles of humanity in the breast of the Indian, 
elements which through all time have differentiated an 
independent self respecting individual from a slavish 
vassal. The task of Peru is to change these latter day 
"Children of the Sun" from beasts of burden into 
men. 

The question persists in the minds of those who 
travel throughout Peru to-day — how can a country be- 
come great when half of its inhabitants are the sad- 
dest-faced men to be found in the world? We have 
wandered considerably about Peru and we have seen 
the Indian in his home, at his work in the fields, driv- 
ing his llamas along the mountain roads. We have 
seen him in his restaurants and in his rest houses, and 
we have never seen him laugh. With his heavy bur- 
den on his back and his stolid, brown, expressionless 
face looking straight ahead of him, his whole appear- 
ance is tragically pathetic. Yet as this modern child 
of the Sun stops at the crest of the hill above his sa- 
cred city of Cuzco, he turns towards the place where 
the Temple of his Deity once stood, and taking off his 
vari-coloured cap, he silently murmurs an old Inca 
prayer before he takes his toilsome way across the 
Cordilleras to his mountain home. Although the cen- 
turies of oppression have seemingly crushed to earth 
the manhood of the Indian, his soul is still alive. He 



LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INCAS 163 

is waiting for his modern conqueror to see the vision 
and to take the initiative of kindling into flame the 
spark that is left within his bosom, forming out of the 
remnants of an ancient despotism the life of a new 
republic. 



CHAPTER XI 

CHILEAN MEN 

THE man of Chile has been somewhat more for- 
tunate than his Peruvian neighbour in the mat- 
ter of climate, and climate has more to do with the 
formation of national characteristics than is sometimes 
realised. In the beautiful city of Santiago, where 
Chile finds her leading citizens, four hundred thou- 
sand strong, the weather during the winter months of 
June, July and August, rarely is colder than our Oc- 
tober in the United States, while the remainder of the 
year is a continuous stretch of days resembling our 
Spring or Autumn. If the people of this conservative 
land could once discover the comfort derived from 
steam heat in their houses during the three months of 
the year when the air is crisp and the houses cold, we 
can think of no portion of the earth where climatic 
conditions are more favourable for either work or 
play. 

As a matter of fact the Chileans seem to have a 
kind of traditional, almost superstitious dread of 
heated houses; they will tell you that if the houses are 
heated one is almost certain to get a cold when he goes 
out, and the foreigner is puzzled to find the people as 
a rule wearing their overcoats and often their hats in- 
doors during the Chilean winter, even when they are 

164 



CHILEAN MEN 165 

abundantly able to have suitable arrangements to make 
their great houses livable according to American 
standards of comfort. 

It is possible, moreover, for the Chilean to satisfy 
his tastes in the matter of weather without leaving 
his own country, for he lives in a land that stretches 
along the Pacific Ocean for 2,900 miles from about 
17 degrees south latitude where Chile joins Peru, to 
Cape Horn, 56 degrees, south latitude, where the wind, 
it is said, always blows a gale and the winter lasts nine 
months of the year. If the Chilean craves further 
variety, he can have it among the lofty snow-capped 
Andes on the east, which in the southern portion of 
this "Tapeline Republic" throw their glaciers down 
to the very water's edge, and never allow the coun- 
try to become more than about a hundred miles in 
width; he may also live in the deserts of the north, or 
among the smiling California-like valleys full of flow- 
ers and vineyards, around Valdivia. 

The man of Chile has thus been shut away from 
the rest of the world by great natural barriers, and 
this partially explains the economic situation in which 
we find him at present, engaging in the production of 
material, like copper, nitrates, borax and iodine whose 
great values Can stand heavy transportation charges, 
and producing for his own needs such articles as would 
command huge prices if imported from other lands. 
The Chilean is fortunate in inhabiting a country that 
in its elongated extent at one place or another is 
capable of producing under proper treatment well nigh 
every product known to exist in any part of the world. 

In the north she has tropical lands which only need 



166 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

irrigation to produce all that is seen beneath the warm- 
est southern skies. The main reason that this section 
has not been irrigated is not merely the difficulty in 
securing water supply, but rather because this des- 
ert region contains over five hundred million tons of 
nitrate close to the surface, which is said to be suffi- 
cient to last the world, in accordance with the pres- 
ent rate of consumption, more than two hundred years. 
These nitrate fields, with their vast sources of wealth, 
bring into the country by export tax alone, between 
fifty and sixty per cent of the entire revenues of the 
i. ational government, and in spite of the fact that they 
are said to be the chief handicap to the Chilean man's 
advance at present, there is probably no country which 
would lightly despise these great natural resources. 

The old residents will speak with longing of those 
golden days of long ago when the Chilean really 
worked, before he learned to depend upon politics and 
official positions in connection with the government in 
order to make a "soft" living. They will tell you of 
the times when before the Civil War, the United States 
with its industry and Anglo-Saxon vigour carried on 
the chief trade with Chile, and the Chilean was found 
in various parts of the world pioneering trade and 
helping to develop his country. 

At present quite a different condition exists. The 
German has come to Chile with his scientific and effi- 
cient methods, settled in her southern provinces, de- 
veloping there great stretches of agricultural terri- 
tory, keeping her shops in the small towns, and be- 
coming the heads of large business firms, trading in 
things "made in Germany." Likewise the English, the 



CHILEAN MEN 167 

Scotchman, the Frenchman and the Italian have seen 
the opportunity and have also taken control of some 
of the most important enterprises of the country. 

Meanwhile the man of Chile has dropped back to 
the old Spanish standard of being a gentleman with 
unsoiled hands. The one hundred old Spanish- 
Chilean families who are said to rule the country, have 
established themselves in the Capitol at Santiago, and 
joining with the Catholic Church, have become the 
leaders of the Conservative party of the country, not 
eager for progress, but desiring far more the leisured 
life of land holders or honoured politicians, spend- 
ing long vacations in Europe, and preferring evidently 
at times the atmosphere of a monarchy to that of a 
republic. 

Against this strong tide of feudal, aristocratic, and 
church influence, the modern liberals are trying at 
present to oppose progressive measures, and the es- 
timate that one hears everywhere to the effect that 
the Chilean business man has little or no regard for 
the Church personally, and is beginning to realise that 
his modern methods of doing business are not con- 
sistent with the old time customs of the social order, 
throws hopeful light upon the situation. The hand 
of officialdom and ecclesiastical prestige is still heavy 
upon Chile, and the youth who are educated in the 
church schools and are brought up to feel that men 
who engage in commerce and really make a business 
of working eight hours a day, are a bit "common," 
are not being trained properly to take the leadership in 
the great possible industrial enterprises of the country. 
As their ideals have been wrong in inheritance, so 



168 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

their education has been one sided, the literary and 
legal side of the curriculum being chiefly emphasised 
while practical education which a great agricultural 
and mining country requires, has been far too fre- 
quently conspicuous by its absence. 

"What is to be the result?" I asked of an old 
Chilean. He answered, "The man of Chile must go 
hungry before he will really apply himself to that 
which he has looked upon as being beneath his dig- 
nity — commerce." 

The man of Chile has been given a rich heritage. 
His Spanish ancestors mingled and married with the 
most virile and sturdy Indian stock of South America, 
and the Auracanian Indian is still forceful in Chile. 
The better class inhabitant of this land is unsur- 
passed in intelligence and in ability. The artistic 
and cultured side has been developed to a degree sur- 
passing, in many cases, that found in the United States. 
But politics and living on credit have sapped his active 
energy. He needs a new impetus along the line of 
hard, faithful and honest endeavour. He is like a 
watch whose spring has run down. He needs rewind- 
ing. The man of Chile who is at the top of society 
needs to learn that honest labour is a dignified calling. 

Serior Juan Luis Sanfuentes, the present man of the 
Chilean "White House," has been a force in the politi- 
cal life of his country for many years; in fact one hears 
him spoken of at times in terms resembling those 
which we in the United States are accustomed to attach 
to our political bosses. In other words he is not un- 
familiar with the ways and means of carrying on the 
government in Chile, and the strength of the Sanfuentes 



CHILEAN MEN 169 

personality has been felt in more than one stirring con- 
test in a republic where politics form the most popular 
profession. 

The Chilean President is a Liberal in politics, but 
he was elected by the Conservatives with the help of 
some of the minor factions, and as a result he is finding 
some difficulty in pleasing his diverse constituents. 
When I was in Chile the radicals and democrats were 
quite to the front with all kinds of censure of officers 
and government practices, while the House of Deputies 
was wrangling over the measure recently proposed to 
make it impossible for officers in the army and navy to 
be members of secret societies, especially of the 
masonic order. Page after page in the daily papers 
contain accounts in full of the entire proceedings of 
Congress, and in general it is rhe Conservative party 
[which is also the Church party] vs. the Liberals and 
several minor political cliques. 

I attended a meeting of students and labouring men 
held on the main Plaza of Santiago, which might have 
been a sign of encouraging progress in democracy and 
free thinking to those who will tell you here that Chile 
is a Republic only in name, and that the Church and 
the old conservative families really rule the country. 

A big brass band led the torch-light procession 
wherein was displayed various transparencies and ban- 
ners promising death and destruction to the corrupt 
rulers, and especially to the head of the police who was 
the particular object of this meeting's derision. Fiery 
and eloquent speeches were in order, and the Anglo- 
Saxon political speech is a tame affair in contrast to 
the easily flowing periods of even the slightly educated 



170 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

politician of the Latin temperament. At the end of 
each scathing rebuke the crowd went wild, with the 
aid of all kinds of bells and tin instruments which made 
one think of a New Year's celebration in Manhattan. 
After an hour or more of oratory, noise and band- 
music the agitators formed in procession and marched 
to another part of the Capital city where the perform- 
ance was repeated. That this gathering was not 
merely a "cart tail" oratorical display, was revealed by 
the fact that the editor of one of the prominent daily 
newspapers was one of the speakers, the university stu- 
dents also taking a prominent part. In fact, I was 
attended at the meeting by two of the prominent edu- 
cators of the city, whose interest and sympathy with 
the remarks of the speakers were shown unmistakably. 

The visitor in Chile will be told by the patriotic 
Chilean that there are no socialists in the country, that 
"we would kick them out very quickly," as one man 
expressed himself in my hearing; yet the student of 
this vigorous country would be inclined to predict that 
if socialism and labour troubles are not already here 
in embryo, they are on their way. The next quarter 
of a century will find the country necessarily grappling 
with many of the problems of society and the labour 
question with which the United States and all growing 
republican nations have had to deal at some time or 
other. 

One advanced and very intelligent member of this 
group of reformers made a visit recently to the 
"hacienda," or farm of the President and dressed as an 
"inquilino," or labourer, made notes of the alleged 
abuses practiced on the farm workers of Chile, writing 




TYPES OF A PATAGONIAN INDIAN TRIBE OF SOUTHERN CHILE 



CHILEAN MEN 171 

it out in full and publishing it in a paper of Santiago, 
and also in a book later. During my interview with 
President Sanfuentes, I remarked that I had already 
seen the account of his farming methods, at which he 
laughed heartily, saying: 

"Yes, it looks rather bad for me, but, as a matter of 
fact, I have only just purchased that farm and the 
abuses can scarcely be laid at my door." 

According to the statement of another man who 
was present at this interview, the social investigator 
was at the farm only two hours, and the account was 
coloured considerably by the imagination of the writer. 
There was ground, however, for the complaints, espe- 
cially regarding the unsanitary and ill conditions of 
living among the "inquilinos" on the vast farms which 
number hundreds, and frequently thousands of acres, 
and where the peons are found utterly ignorant and 
with hardly any conception of the outer world. 

Certain it is that no one visiting the Chilean Presi- 
dent and his charming wife would get any impression 
other than that the destinies of this republic were now 
in the hands of very real and genuine people. 

Their home is a typical Spanish one built on a grand 
scale, with huge rooms, high ceilings and filled with 
paintings and statuary that might add to any European 
art gallery. We were received on a Sunday afternoon, 
not only by the President but also by Mrs. Sanfuentes 
and several members of the family. The home was 
filled with that delightful air of hospitality and thought- 
ful courtesy which marks the life of these well-bred 
cultured people of the best class in Chile. The Presi- 
dent, a big genial man about sixty years old, makes 



172 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

one at home immediately by his remarks as to one's 
trip, and inquiries concerning your health, family, and 
happiness generally, which always forms the customary 
prelude when Chilean meets Chilean, no matter how 
important or immediate may be the business in hand. 
Our conversation was interrupted at times by Madame 
President, true to her Chilean home devotion, excusing 
herself to go out of the room to attend to some domes- 
tic's inquiries, or bringing in to meet us her beautiful 
grandchild, or going to find a picture of her son to 
show us. 

Like all Chilean homes, also, the house was without 
heat, even in the winter, the wife of the President 
wearing a seal-skin coat and a la Chinese holding her 
hands up her sleeves to keep them warm. It is cus- 
tomary here in the winter months for your host to in- 
sist that you keep on your overcoat in the house, and 
he sometimes suggests that you keep your hat at hand 
to wear if you need it in passing through the open air 
patios with which all the old Spanish houses are fur- 
nished. 

"What is the outstanding need of Chile at present?" 
I asked. "Capital!" was the President's reply. "We 
have great natural resources. Almost everything 
found in any country can be raised on our land, or dug 
out of our mines; but we must have money for irriga- 
tion, for the needs of transportation and for the start- 
ing and maintenance of industries. Note what some 
of your own countrymen are doing at present here in 
mining," he continued. "See the huge trade that the 
English and Germans have built upon Chilean re- 
sources. These things have been wrought largely by 



CHILEAN MEN 173 

foreign capital. Give us money for promotion pur- 
poses, and our advance is almost certain and at once." 

The subject of immigration was discussed, and H. E. 
emphasised the fact that Chile, contrary to the opinion 
held in some quarters, desired immigration not from 
Europe only, but also from the United States. 

"The Germans, for example," said the President, 
"have developed for themselves some wonderful col- 
onies in the south of Chile. They have revealed what 
can be done along the line of colonisation in this pro- 
ductive land where the mountains have ample water 
power for all kinds of purposes, and where there is 
only required proper industry to raise fruits and grains 
equal to any to be found anywhere in the world." 

"Yet," it was added, "we are a bit particular to make 
sure that we get the right kind of immigration, and 
such as we can assimilate and is adapted to the country's 
need at the time. We expect that the opening of the 
Panama Canal, which will break the isolation our land 
has heretofore experienced, will aid us in this, as in 
many other ways." 

One could hardly expect that any government official 
would speak ill of the nitrate industry, which is bringing 
to Chile at present considerably more than one half 
her entire revenue. I ventured to say that many peo- 
ple had told me that nitrate was not an unmixed bless- 
ing to this country, since it brought in so much "easy 
money" in revenue, that it tended to cut the nerve of 
the old-time Chilean endeavour, and caused really every 
one to seek connection with the Government, and share 
in the stream of wealth flowing into the nation's treas- 



174 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

ury from saltpetre, iodine and the rich nitrate fer- 
tilisers. 

"Only a comparatively small percentage of our pop- 
ulation is engaged in the nitrate fields," answered the 
President, "while the revenues have helped to make 
possible schools, railroads and many other improve- 
ments which would not have been possible otherwise." 

Reference was made to the new bill of two million 
pesos for primary education, which branch of learning 
is weak in Chile. 

"To be sure," Said Dr. Sanfuentes, "every nation 
first cultivates her natural resources. The United 
States followed that policy. According to the view of 
the Chilean the fears of certain persons that Chile will 
be ruined by nitrate are groundless, since the people 
are active and intelligent; the majority of the youth of 
the land work, and the sons of the large farmers are 
interesting themselves now in the improvement of their 
lands through modern appliances, and trying to better 
the condition of their employees, by sending them to 
night schools and building for them better dwellings. 
This work may seem slow since the peons are averse 
to change; they do not, as a rule, wish to spare their 
boys from manual work in order to send them to 
school ; they are too often satisfied with things as they 
are." 

"What about trade with the United States after the 
war is over?" was asked. 

"That depends almost entirely upon you," was the 
decided answer. "Chile is not averse to doing business 
with your country," said the head of the Government, 
"and now that we are by necessity getting a closer ac- 



CHILEAN MEN 175 

quaintance with the people in the 'States' than we have 
had previously, there is every opportunity for your 
manufacturers to establish a large and permanent trade 
in Chile. The great difficulty at present resides in the 
fact that our people are having so much trouble to get 
considerate treatment as regards filling of orders as 
they are sent, also with payments, which are demanded 
often in cash before the goods are even shipped, when 
the Chileans have been accustomed to credits of sixty 
or ninety days. Our people are saying, 'It seems that 
the United States does not care for our trade.' 

"Unless your manufacturers awake to the situation 
in time," said he, "I feel almost certain that the 
Chileans will go back to their European markets as 
soon as the war opens those markets again. It will be 
a matter not only of economic gain for us, but also an 
added convenience in being able to do business in ac- 
cordance with the traditional taste and custom of the 
country." 

This sentiment is found not only in Chile but also in 
virtually every Latin-American country I visited. 
Buenos Aires was much disturbed when I was there by 
reason of several cases of shipments of goods not in 
accordance with orders or agreement, and the press 
was scathing in protest of what was considered grave 
breaches of business integrity on the part of American 
shippers. 

Almost every American business man one meets 
down here, as well as many of the consular officers of 
the United States Government seem pessimistic about 
our getting the great and important business in these 
republics because our manufacturers are either so 



176 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

much absorbed in the temporary business in connection 
with the European war, or are plainly indifferent to 
their future interests, that they overlook one of the 
most far-reaching opportunities for foreign trade ever 
opened to America. To be sure, many are awake to 
the unprecedented "abnormality" of opportunity, as 
one official expressed it, but we need banks down here 
in every important city; we need special visits by manu- 
facturers themselves who will get into touch personally 
with the people and gain their point of view as they 
never can get it at long range; and more than all the 
American firms need to appreciate that what is done 
must be done quickly. 

"A month of activity now in getting into touch in the 
right way with these markets will be worth years of 
slow plodding for any manufacturer in the United 
States after European competition sets in again at the 
end of the war," was the significant remark of one of 
the astute heads of a strong American firm doing busi- 
ness in South America. 

That the people in these states south of us are eager 
and ready to do their part, the Chilean President 
averred: 

"We are sending our students to study in the United 
States," said he, "since we know that our people who 
have visited you have returned enthusiastic over the 
things they have seen and learned. We believe that 
there is a natural bond of comity between the republics 
on this continent. Our people have usually gone to 
Europe in late years for their pleasure and travel, as 
well as for their business ideals. Many of us have 
hoped that it would be possible to join our American 



CHILEAN MEN 177 

nations more closely than ever before through the ex- 
igencies of these unusual times — but I repeat," said 
he, "this depends largely upon the men of the United 
States." 

What will be the answer of our people to this con- 
fessedly frank and true statement of the President of 
Chile? . 



CHAPTER XII 

SANTIAGO THE CITY OF ARISTOCRACY 

Aloof from our mutation and unrest. — William Watson. 

SOUTH AMERICAN cities possess many traits in 
common. The same language is spoken, Spanish, 
save in Brazil with its Portuguese traditions. The 
architecture varies somewhat, but in all the larger cities 
and towns the churches and the public buildings remind 
one of Europe, often of mediaeval Europe, and the 
open patios, the flower gardens and the ever present 
Spanish balcony, confront one everywhere. 

There are also similarities in the characteristics of 
the population. A foreign gentleman once said to me 
on the West Coast, "See one Latin-American city and 
you have seen them all." To a hurried traveller this 
may seem true, but as soon as one begins to get below 
the surface, meeting the people of various classes and 
studying habits in the light of history, he finds a world 
of difference in these cities. Lima is as different from 
Buenos Aires as Quebec is from Toronto, while Quito 
is as unlike Rio de Janeiro as Delhi is unlike Naples. 
In each of the large cities of the Southern Hemisphere 
of America certain geographical, racial and physio- 
logical conditions have combined to stamp the inhabi- 
tants with more or less distinctive traits. 

178 



SANTIAGO— THE CITY OF ARISTOCRACY 179 

This fact is abundantly evident in the Chilean city 
of Santiago, the fourth city in number of inhabitants 
in South America. It is a city of isolated aristocracy, 
situated in the heart of the real Chile on the tableland 
from which the inhabitants look up to the glistening 
perennial snows of the Cordilleras, which shut it in on 
the east, and see toward the west the verdant slopes 
of the coast range mountains. It seems an ideal spot 
for a great city, here in this amphitheatre of hills and 
mountain summits, some of which pierce the heavens 
19,000 feet above the level of the Chilean Capital. 
It is a standing compliment to the judgment of the 
eminent conquistadore, Valdivia, who, in the year 
1 541, placed on Santa Lucia Hill, which overlooks this 
fair city, his fortress built against the Auracanian In- 
dians. 

There is only one other South American city, the 
enchanting Rio, that approaches the natural beauty of 
Santiago among the Andes. As one stands at sunset 
on the hill of Santa Lucia, which is not unlike a rich 
flower garden bending over the city and two hundred 
feet above, his eye is greeted by a wonderful panorama 
of enclosed country forty miles long and eighteen miles 
in width, in the midst of which lies Santiago, whose 
parks and broad statue-adorned Alameda, with its 
churches and handsome buildings, form a rich colour 
contrast with the snowy peaks of the Andes to the 
east. 

Here is focussed the political energy of Chile, which 
is the most ardently patriotic of all the South Ameri- 
can republics. Here dwell the hundred or more old 
aristocratic families which are said to rule the country. 



180 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Here is the great cathedral occupying aft entire block 
and the Bishop's palace, from which there issues an in- 
fluence, political as well as ecclesiastical, almost as 
powerful as in those distant mediaeval days, when the 
Church was the State and the State was the Church. 
Here are the wealthy land-owners whose fine homes 
signify the vast productiveness of Chilean soil, and also 
the favoured sons of a government grown rich by 
nitrates, and revenues upon mining products made pos- 
sible by foreign labour. 

As one meets everywhere in the streets of this active 
and alert Capital the silk-hatted Deputies and the ever 
present would-be young politician, one gains the im- 
pression that for the Chilean, politics is all. In the 
schools if one asks the controlling ideals for life work, 
the answer is constantly, "Our young men want to be 
lawyers and have a place in the government." The 
older inhabitants shake their heads at times and seem 
to wonder what is going to be the result of all this 
modern race of politics-loving youth, these young men 
who consider business and commerce a bit lowering to 
their-aristocratic standards of gentlemanhood. As an 
old resident said to me, "Our young and active and 
intelligent sons, alas, do not like to work. The gov- 
ernment with its short hours and good pay is more 
attractive. These are not such days as we knew be- 
fore we took from Peru her nitrate provinces. Then, 
work was more honourable, and our commercial agents 
were found throughout the world." 

In a city like Santiago, where politics is a business, 
one is not surprised to find a system of favouritism, and 
political manoeuvring for the securing of well paid posi- 



SANTIAGO— THE CITY OF ARISTOCRACY 181 

tions in all lines of business owned and controlled by 
the government. The same kind of story heard in other 
republics about the overcrowding of employes upon 
railroads and the almost unbelievable corruption in 
connection with the contracts for government construc- 
tion and municipal affairs, is heard here in this beau- 
tiful town, which has been almost hermetically sealed 
against the outside world by her unique geographical 
boundaries. 

Yet the spirit of the inhabitants of Santiago is dis- 
tinctly strong, virile and attractive, as different from 
the Peruvian laissez-faire and that of the tropically 
influenced inhabitant of the republics northeast of 
Chile, as one can possibly imagine. The city is full of 
the air of modernity; there is to be found here pride 
of accomplishment, pride of family, pride of race, and 
particularly a pride in fighting abilities. In fact, one 
may say that politics and war are the two topics which 
are of perennial interest to the people of this city. 
More than any other South American republic, Chile 
is militarily inclined. 

I found no peace propaganda in Santiago, but we 
found here, as throughout the country, Chilean soldiers 
and officers who remind one more of Prussia in both 
their dress and ideals than they resemble the usual 
South American republicans. This may not seem 
strange when we realise that the Chilean army has been 
trained by the Germans and that Germany, through 
her colonists and influence exerted in many ways upon 
this state, has left her deep impress here. In fact, as 
one walks through the streets of Santiago one finds it 
hard to discover what might be called a Chilean type 



182 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

of face. The negro or Indian types are absent. 
There are many blondes, and the upward curl of the 
moustaches could almost deceive one into believing 
that he was in one of the smaller cities of North Ger- 
many. 

Among the attractions of this Chilean city are its 
beautiful women. They are beautiful with a type all 
their own; lighter in complexion than their Peruvian 
cousins, with more vigorous bodies but with delicate, 
oval faces, often pale through artificial causes. Their 
eyes are their chief charm, being large and dark, and 
often reminding one of some sad old melancholy 
romance one has read concerning those pristine Spanish 
days u When knights were bold, and barons held their 
sway." 

Many of these women are tall and stately, and their 
clothes are bought in Paris. They are the epitome, 
especially the members of the higher classes, of well- 
bred and graceful ladyhood. One can hardly blame the 
young Chileans for standing on the street corners at 
the tea hour, or sitting in the tea cafes in order to watch 
these fair creatures "born in Chile." 

The manta, "that graceful euphemism which shields 
the poor and disarms the vain," in a kind of soft black 
enveloping shroud, making the women look very much 
like nuns, but their closely framed faces are too happy 
and lightsome to fully complete this illusion. When 
you see their slender, graceful figures, silhouetted 
against some light background, or behold them kneel- 
ing in their dimly lighted churches, you are quite in- 
clined to think that not the least charm of this fascinat- 
ing city consists in its beautiful women. Perhaps, 



SANTIAGO— THE CITY OF ARISTOCRACY 183 

however, one's admiration for these Santiago beauties 
is somewhat diminished upon closer acquaintanceship. 
In the majority of cases the women, while beautifully 
ornamental, rarely leave their homes. They are not 
as secluded as are the Peruvian women, but they still 
believe that the home is the woman's realm. I found 
only one woman's club in Chile, and this club seemed to 
be having a struggle for existence. As one of the 
ladies of Santiago's aristocracy expressed it, with a 
shrug of her pretty shoulders, "Clubs are for women 
who have no homes, but the ladies of Chile will never 
countenance them." 

These fair inhabitants excel as musicians and 
linguists, but as far as modern education is concerned 
and the ability to carry on a conversation requiring any 
general knowledge or thought, one will be exceedingly 
disappointed in Chilean feminine society. 

The home in Santiago is quite hermetically sealed to 
foreigners. One often meets American or English 
business men here who will tell you that they have 
hardly been within the home of a Chilean during their 
entire residence in the country. Once in a while a 
foreigner who is particularly "simpatico," or an alien 
youth who has married into a Chilean family, gets into 
Santiago "society." The Chilean will entertain his 
guests at his club, but he follows the South American 
habit of keeping his home to himself. 

In fact, the home life of Santiago is patriarchal. 
The families are enormous, and the sons and daughters 
and aunts and cousins and far cousins make such a 
wide circle of social life that the Santiagoan does not 
need the cultivation of outside acquaintances. 



184 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Santiago, moreover, is a home for the rich and a 
home for the poor. There is no great middle class. 
As soon as you go a block or two from the beautiful 
Alameda, lined with the homes of the rich, you will 
come upon the very slums where the poor are huddled 
together in one-room tenements, and often under most 
unsanitary conditions. These tenements are usually 
located in alleys off from the main streets. These 
alleys are paved with cobble stones, with a large drain 
running through the centre, and the whole life of the 
inmates of the one-story houses is passed in these open, 
narrow defiles, where they cook and wash their linen, 
and perform many of their household duties. These 
tenements, horribly overcrowded, are used only for 
sleeping and eating purposes, as the remainder of the 
life is largely out of doors. The Santiagoans are be- 
ginning to realise that these tenements and the adobe 
huts are a disgrace to their beautiful city, and one man 
not long ago built a line of model tenements. Unfor- 
tunately the prices were so high that the poor could 
not afford to live in them, and they are now occupied 
by clerks, school teachers, and others whose purse 
makes it possible for them to reside under healthful 
modern conditions. 

As one wanders about through this striking city, be- 
holding the glaring contrasts between its wealth and 
its poverty, it is usually with the wonder that these 
highly patriotic citizens have not yet turned their sen- 
timents of patriotism more systematically towards the 
great social and humanitarian enterprises which engage 
to-day so many people in the cities of America and 
Europe. 



SANTIAGO— THE CITY OF ARISTOCRACY 185 

Despite many things which the investigator finds in 
Santiago not exactly to his liking, there is still for him. 
an abiding charm, not unlike that which holds him in 
many an Oriental city. This is especially recognised 
at "vermouth time," which is the period just before 
nightfall in Santiago, when the whole city seems to 
leave its homes and its offices to take a little promenade 
before dinner. The merchant pulls down his heavy 
iron shutters ; the newsboys cry out the evening editions 
of the newspapers, with shrill voices, on the corners of 
the thickly congested thoroughfare of Huerfanos, and 
the Union club, where the gentry and politicians gather, 
is filling up with a goodly quota of its twenty-one hun- 
dred members. At this hour, when the dull red after- 
glow of the sunset is reflected upon the snowy tops of 
the Andes, which are always present to view from 
nearly every part of the city, the bells ring in the 
theatres calling the people to the latest Spanish playlet, 
or cinema, which has just received a film from New 
York, shown six months ago upon the "White Way" 
of the northern metropolis. 

On the Plaza, where Santiago youth walks and stares 
at each other, the band is tuning up its instruments. 
This circling around the Plaza at twilight seems to be 
a tradition of the blood in Spanish American countries. 
The young men walk about in one direction and the 
young women in the opposite direction. This gives an 
opportunity for the pretty Santiago maiden to show her 
face to an admirer without a breach of propriety. It 
is a motley and vari-coloured crowd, as far as garments 
go. The young Chilean officer is there, in red coat 
and grey mantle. There is the dapper young idler 



186 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

and son of the wealthy hacienda owner, the clerk from 
the great foreign commercial house, old men and young 
men, all coming to admire the sefioritas as they pass 
slowly by. In the moving panorama of Chilean fem- 
ininity one discovers here and there girls of good 
families attended by a watchful duenna, but this Plaza 
march is composed largely of the young women of the 
classes once removed from "Society" and the pretty 
shop girls. 

This Plaza section is like the famous Avenida of 
Rio, where all Rio appears at nightfall. The air is 
filled with the scent of violets which the flower boys 
fairly thrust upon one. The narrow streets are 
jammed with limousines and fine victorias carrying the 
wealthy and the socially elect to the tea places and 
clubs. The great double-decked cars move slowly 
down the crowded streets, packed with the only true 
democrats of the country, who are for the most part 
jammed together like sardines on the roof of the 
tram cars, where riding at night is colder, but less 
costly. 

The chill that sweeps down from the heights of the 
Andes makes the hurrying Santiagoan button his over- 
coat tighter and feel for his gloves. But in all his 
rush to join a party of friends at the club he never 
forgets to raise his hat and shake hands as he meets 
a gentleman on the way. 

If you wish to see men and women who are the rul- 
ers and pattern makers of the life of Chile, it is all here 
at "vermouth time," here in a square mile in Santiago. 
It is a glittering phantasmagoria of externalism, pomp 
and pleasure-loving — a bit of the mediaeval day that 



SANTIAGO— THE CITY OF ARISTOCRACY 187 

died before it was born in America, mixed with a half- 
formed desire for modernity. 

One cannot but think that this really important city, 
that holds the sovereignty of government and fashion 
in Chile, will in the next generation put off much of 
this specious worship of family and caste which, to- 
gether with an oligarchical type of clergy, binds the 
wheels of the republic. As the more clogging accom- 
paniments of Spanish tradition and an authoritative 
Church have been relegated to the background in 
Argentina, making way for the new order of social 
and industrial progress, so in Chile a new generation 
promises to sweep away much of this patriarchal aris- 
tocracy, ill suited to the air of republicanism. 



CHAPTER XIII 

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 

Load the donkey according to the wish of the master. 

Old Portuguese Proverb. 

AMONG the far-reaching possibilities making for 
better business relationships between the United 
States and the South American republics are those 
flowing from the recent policy of the United States 
Government in sending a few trained business special- 
ists — Commercial Attaches, to several of the Latin 
American States. 

Mr. William F. Montavon, who is the commercial 
representative for Peru and Bolivia, has already 
travelled over large portions of his field, visiting some 
of the leading industrial enterprises and gaining valu- 
able information regarding the business opportunities 
for Americans in these countries. 

I asked him concerning some of the chief difficulties 
he encountered, and he answered: 

"The trouble just now is to get the manufacturers in 
the United States to discover that we are here and 
desire to help them to secure business in South America. 
Many of them do not seem to know that we exist, and 
we are spending considerable time at present simply to 
inform them of the ways in which they can secure in- 

188 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 189 

formation through us and asking them to let us be of 
assistance." 



In speaking of the opening doors for trade with Peru, 
especially, Mr. Montavon expressed his conviction 
that there was need to establish some kind of a publicity 
campaign through South American papers by which the 
Latin American may be able to learn the exact truth 
regarding American business, prices, and the general 
point of view of people in the United States. The 
Peruvian needs to be shown thereby that these present 
prices, which in many cases are double the usual prices 
they have been required to pay for goods, are war 
prices and not normal ones. Everywhere one goes in 
the cities and towns of Peru one hears complaints about 
the exorbitant cost of American manufactured articles, 
and European competitors of the United States for the 
South American trade are quite ready to join the 
Peruvians in extending the impression that everything 
made in America is excessively expensive. 

A newspaper campaign, which would show the actual 
conditions and the handicap under which our manufac- 
turers are now working because of the European war, 
would be of great assistance at present. Mr. Mon- 
tavon believes that the South American papers would 
be very glad to print such articles. In fact, these 
papers are eager for news especially relating to com- 
mercial and social conditions in the United States, and 
at present the information printed in the Peruvian 
newspaper is fragmentary and often misleading. 

For example, the answer of Germany to the message 
of the United States regarding submarines was printed 



190 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

in full by one of the leading dailies, while our message 
to Germany was not printed either in this edition or 
in any former one. The people thus get one-sided 
accounts, and the traveller in these countries often 
comes across very strange and frequently ludicrous con- 
ceptions of the Americans as to their business and life 
in general. I was talking with one Peruvian gentle- 
man who informed me that he understood that, while 
the United States at the time of the Civil War was 
really an aristocratic and cultured nation, at present, 
through the lowering of ideals by the incoming of so 
much immigration, the country has greatly degenerated, 
and it is really difficult to find what might be called 
"real gentlemen" among the Yankees. As far as I 
could gather from his remarks, he held the view that 
certain Americans still hold a position of education 
and gentlemanhood equal to the people of South 
America, but that the majority of the population are 
in a low state of civilisation, and lack particularly edu- 
cation and culture. 

One is also impressed in visits to several Latin 
American states with the tendency to secure ideals and 
information very largely from Europe. Peruvians go 
to Europe, and especially to Paris, not only for their 
models of dress, but also for their vacations, mental 
point of view, and for the education of their children. 
As soon as a Peruvian is successful in business his first 
thought is to stop work and to make arrangements to 
live on the continent of Europe for a good part of the 
year. 

It must be remembered that the Peruvians are not 
primarily a business people, that the society of the na- 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 191 

tion which establishes the ideals are the old families 
descendent from the Spanish aristocracies, whose mem- 
bers live on their dividends, and consider commercial 
activity demeaning. Indeed, Peru is unique among 
South American republics in proudly holding to its 
old lines of Spanish ancestry which many of the old 
families trace directly back to the house of Pizarro 
and the old Spanish conquerors. It is a proud people, 
and, in its upper social register, very exclusive, turn- 
ing automatically on the wheel of family lineage. 
Although the Peruvians are not as wealthy in this 
world's goods as formerly, they are no less desirous to 
appear so, and one will often see the outward signs of 
splendour that attended the rich era of the ancient rule 
of Spain in this republic. 

Because of these traditional ideals, the youth of the 
country are not inclined to save their money, but to 
spend it in the outward signs of prosperity. They like 
to be "rentiers," or men who seem to be able to live on 
their income without work. It is therefore difficult to 
tell the degree of business success by judging from the 
clothes the men wear. One seldom sees better dressed 
men anywhere than in Peru. It is too often "front," 
or, as an old resident of this country put it, "They keep 
the front room up, but don't go to the kitchen." 

It is due to these national heritages and character- 
istics that the country has been slow to improve its in- 
dustrial condition. At present the country needs roads, 
railroads and country roads, to make possible the 
transportation of crops and the native products of 
the mines. The Andes shut the people up to a com- 
paratively narrow tract on the west coast, but as soon 



192 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

as roads are made to tap the vast valleys and table- 
lands of the interior on the other side of the first range 
of the Cordilleras, there will be opened in Peru regions 
equal in area to the combined extent of four or five 
of our largest states in the Middle West. 

Another great need, and business opportunity as 
well, is along irrigation lines. At least 75 per cent of 
the rainfall is wasted because of the absence of proper 
irrigation. The land of the interior stretches away 
for miles upon miles before the eye, all untouched in 
its virgin condition, needing only water to make possi- 
ble, the growth of nearly everything germane to both 
tropical and temperate zones. I write these words in 
the interior of Peru, 8,000 feet above sea-level, in full 
view of the snows on the summit of Mount Misti, which 
volcano towers nearly 20,000 feet above the sea. One 
looks over a valley rich in all agricultural products, 
with waving palms and terraced gardens and orchards 
hanging heavy with tropical fruits. It is the inland 
city of Arequipa, where modern plans of irrigation 
have turned the desert into a beautiful and prosperous 
community. 

Peru, with capital, possesses almost every imagin- 
able opportunity for great commercial and industrial 
progress. Her present business advance reveals her 
future possibilities. Her war with Chile was indeed a 
costly reverse, for it is said that out of the nitrate 
fields which Chile took from Peru the victorious re- 
public reaps sixty per cent of her revenue to-day. If 
the above needs can be met (and they must be met 
largely by foreign capital) the old Peru is destined 




ARICA — THE TERMINI'S OF THK NEW CHILEAN RAILROAD FROM LA PAZ 




PRIMITIVE PLOWING IN CHILE 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 193 

to awake from her mediaeval sleep and become truly- 
one of the resourceful nations of the world. 

That the United States should have an increasing 
part in this progress is both natural and possible. In 
19 13 Peru gave the United States six per cent more 
trade than she gave to any other nation, and the years 
since reveal a much larger percentage of business be- 
tween the two countries. The imports in which the 
United States stood first with Peru in 19 13 were 
chiefly in woods, lumber and manufactures; in paints, 
dyes, and varnishes ; in tools, ship stores, machines and 
vehicles; and in pharmaceutical products and medicines. 
The leading exports of the country are in wool, copper, 
sugar, hides, and various minerals in which this moun- 
tainous land is extremely rich. 

The large increase of imports of late years is due to 
several causes, among the principal ones being. 

First, the development of hydro-electrical power in 
such concerns as the Cerro de Pasco Mining Co., which 
business is said to pay one half of the export duty of 
Peru at present; it is also due to the large quantities 
of electrical material used in the other large mining 
firm of Backus & Johnson. 

Second, the increase was due to the purchase of sev- 
eral powerful American locomotives by the Peruvian 
Corporation, which controls all the railroads of Peru. 

Third, because of the installation of modern sugar 
machinery in the large progressive sugar factories 
along the coast, together with the labour-saving ma- 
chinery in the cotton mills of Lima. 

The war conditions of 19 14, making it impossible 
for Great Britain, Germany and France to continue 



194 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

furnishing a large part of their usual material to Peru, 
have turned the eyes of Peruvian importers to the 
United States. A steady tide of American products 
is now going towards this southern republic; yet the 
Peruvian business people will tell you that, as soon as 
the war is over, they will go back to the European 
markets because of the great expense of American 
merchandise. It is commonly stated here that in spite 
of the sentimental regard for Americans, there can be 
no sentiment in buying goods of a nation at almost 
double the price at which the same goods may be pro- 
cured in another country. 

Lima women, for example, are now buying American 
shoes, paying often from nine to fifteen dollars for a 
pair of shoes that sell ordinarily in the "States" at four 
or five dollars a pair. This increase is due, to be sure, 
to the percentages of from fifteen to twenty-five per 
cent paid to commission houses, as well as to the fact 
that the Austrian shoes, which the Peruvians have 
usually bought, are not coming at present. It is noted 
that Austria in times of peace buys her hides from the 
Near East at moderate prices, and pays her labour 
from fifty to seventy cents a day — a decided contrast 
to American conditions. Regarding means by which 
the United States could overcome these handicaps, the 
Commercial Attache of the United States made two 
valuable suggestions. 

In the first place, it was suggested that the com- 
missions which are sent to South America should be 
selected with great care, and should be guided by 
persons who are perfectly familiar with South Ameri- 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 195 

can conditions and temperament. These conditions 
furthermore should not be sidetracked by social 
amenities and a continuous round of entertainments 
and dinners that consume the time that should be 
given to purely business matters. The illustration was 
cited a number of times by different observers of the 
return Commission which visited Peru in response to 
its appointment at the Washington Financial Congress 
of 19 14. To be sure, this Commission, coming directly 
after the unfortunate incident connected with the visit 
of the Commission on the "Tennessee," would have 
seemed to be considerably handicapped through the 
absence of social hospitalities, which were lacking be- 
cause of the outraged feelings of the Peruvians rela- 
tive to what they considered to be lack of considera- 
tion of their feelings and hospitality by the "Tennes- 
see" party. However, this proved to be a blessing in 
disguise, for the business men who composed this later 
Commission had time to devote themselves entirely to 
commercial and industrial investigation, with results 
that were valuable and far-reaching. 

The second suggestion was to the effect that several 
manufacturers in the United States get together and 
establish agencies or a commission house in Peru, sav- 
ing the commissions that now go to the middlemen 
who do business with Europe and other countries, and 
are therefore naturally not pushing the goods of any 
one nation. 

An English business man, who is the head of the 
Chamber of Commerce in one of the Peruvian cities, 
said: 



196 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

"Your American commissions investigate too much 
down here. Why don't you form a commission house?" 

It would seem that this suggestion was timely now 
when the merchants of Peru are in a transition stage. 
Their European goods are virtually gone, and they 
have not begun to buy American goods on a big per- 
manent scale. Soon, however, they must buy heavily 
somewhere in order to remain in business. As one 
American business man of Lima said: "The people 
here are at an amazed standstill, not quite off with the 
old, and not quite on with the new; it is the most 
strategic moment in the entire history of the country." 

One is told in Peru that the taking of the nitrate 
fields by Chile was a blessing in disguise for Peru, since 
it cemented the Peruvian nation and made it necessary 
for the people to spend less time in politics and revo- 
lutions and more time in value-producing pursuits. 
The loss of the nitrate fields took away the cause of 
the revolutions by reducing the government revenues, 
for which revolutions were usually carried on. 

I was interested to know what the Chileans thought 
of the value of these nitrate fields, which are yielding 
for Chile from twenty-five to thirty million tons of 
nitrate yearly valued at twenty-six million pesos. In 
other words, out of the sixty million dollar revenue of 
the Chilean government, between thirty-five and forty 
millions come to Chile from her nitrate fields. 

"What has been the result of the nitrate industry 
upon Chilean business?" I asked of many heads of 
foreign trading houses. The answer almost invariably 
was, that it had cut the nerve of business endeavour on 
the part of the Chileans who now depended largely 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 197 

upon one industry, a bad condition for any country. 

When one asks why the vast forest reserves of 
southern Chile are not being worked, or why greater 
emphasis is not placed upon the production of copper, 
wheat and other commodities in which Chile is rich, 
the answer always comes: 

"It is easier for the people to work the nitrate fields 
which at present yield a tremendous product for a 
sure market." 

The fact that Germany is said to be producing yearly 
six hundred thousand tons of nitrate ammonia and 
promises to be a fair competitor of Chile along this 
line, does not seem to affect the people's peace of mind. 
Chile, like other South American republics, has been 
seriously affected by the European war, the government 
suffering especially from the shortage of revenues from 
imports. The general import trade of Chile is largely 
in the hands of a dozen or more big importing houses 
which are engaged also in export trade. These trading 
houses, owing to Chile's distance from the great supply 
market, find it necessary to carry large stocks of im- 
ported merchandise, which are distributed along the 
coast. The advance of freight rates, together with 
the prices of many commodities in former markets, 
made it possible for these houses to dispose of their 
reserve stocks at a profit, because of the fact that the 
market had received a short supply of articles from 
abroad. 

The war increased the demand for the production 
and exportation of nitrate of silver and copper, and 
the high prices brought from these commodities gave 
Chile a large amount of money and helped to re-estab- 



198 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

lish her trade conditions on as normal a basis as could 
be expected, in consideration of the disturbed state of 
the world markets. 

During the year 19 15, stock dividends in Chile were 
fifty per cent below those of previous years, there be- 
ing only about half a dozen companies in the city of 
Valparaiso, for example, that declared equal or larger 
dividends in 19 15 than in the preceding year. 

A summary of the general conditions in the country 
is indicated by the following extract from El Diario 
Illustrado of Santiago: 

"The situation of the country is difficult. It has 
recovered, or is on the way to recover, all of its produc- 
tive force, but it can not count for safety on the foreign 
market. Also, the lack of freights, or their fantastic 
quotations, almost effects an economic isolation of the 
country. These conditions of insecurity, which also 
considerably depress our export prices, will probably 
be prolonged during the entire period of the war. 
After the war we will face formidable market uncer- 
tainties and, although in a less degree, many difficulties 
in the matter of freights. Apart from these, the war, 
which is destroying the wealth of the greatest nations, 
will deprive us of avenues of credit, and almost cer- 
tainly will oblige us to live for some time on our own 
resources. The normal financial equilibrium of the 
country will not be achieved except by effort and by 
sacrifices. All fixed bases for the calculation of import 
and export tax revenues are wanting, and we find our- 
selves obliged to revise our system of revenue. The 
gravest problems raised by the European war as yet 
remain unsolved." 

One finds a decided increase of trade with the United 
States on the part of all business houses in Chile. This 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 199 

is not because the Chileans or the English and German 
houses are especially inclined toward trade with Amer- 
ican firms, but simply because many European markets 
are closed. One finds everywhere complaints concern- 
ing high American prices, difficulty in getting orders 
filled promptly, grievances concerning credits, and the 
cries that are always going up from South Americans, 
on the West Coast, especially, regarding the inadequate 
packing of American goods. Since the war the pack- 
ing from the United States has been worse than ever, 
because there have been many new shippers who do 
not understand the need of firmly packed goods to 
withstand the unusual and difficult processes of unload- 
ing products virtually on the high seas. Shippers 
seem to be lamentably ignorant of the fact that there 
is not a single port on the West Coast where a steamer 
can land at a wharf in still water, but that everything 
must be taken from the hold of the boat sailing from 
the United States to Panama, lifted by cranes and 
placed in lighters, often during a heavy sea ; the lighters 
in turn upon reaching the shore must unload this cargo 
under the stress of big swells that roll up from the 
Antarctic region and also with the additional disturb- 
ances caused by a strong backwash from the shore. 

In coming down on a Chilean steamer, I was intensely 
interested in the unloading of cargos. Almost invari- 
ably it was possible to pick out the boxes packed in the 
United States. A large number of them were broken 
open because of the fact that the commodities were 
only packed in skeleton frames suitable for transporta- 
tion between cities in the "States." One shipment of 



200 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

chairs to an inland port was in such condition that it 
seemed impossible for any more than one half of the 
large shipment to reach its destination in unbroken 
form. It is the usual remark among ships' officers 
when large boxes, lifted into lighters, land with a crash 
of broken wood and a spilling out of products. — 
"There goes another Gringo order!" 

On all sides one hears from business men in Chile 
this remark. 

"The manufacturers in the United States seem to 
give no heed to our needs down here: our orders are 
delayed often for six or eight months, and we have to 
stand the losses of goods received in bad condition or 
orders filled incorrectly. We are only waiting for the 
war to close in order to renew our trade with European 
firms where we receive better service at lower prices. 
Europe wants our trade and thinks it worth working 
for. The United States does not seem to care." 

Every American travelling on the West Coast at 
present is puzzled to know why we in the United States 
have been talking so much about getting South Ameri- 
can trade and at the same time reveal such indifference 
in actually securing and keeping it, when we have, as 
at present, the greatest opportunity which has ever 
been afforded to us of building up permanent South 
American business. 

The attitude of American business is in certain sec- 
tions, at least, undergoing some change at present, and 
it may be timely to add some detailed suggestions re- 
garding ways and means of securing and conducting 
foreign business on the West Coast of South America. 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 201 

In response to a question to Mr. V. L. Havens, re- 
cently the United States Commercial Attache to Chile, 
regarding the various methods of entering foreign mar- 
kets, the following statement was made: 

"The first method, and undoubtedly the one that is 
the primary step that every manufacturer has taken 
when considering the export trade, is by correspon- 
dence. In the event that any interest in his product is 
developed, he has the option of handling the business 
through export commission houses, who at times are 
the real cause of the development of the manufacturer's 
interest; then sending out travelling salesmen; using 
native houses as agencies; establishing resident Amer- 
ican agents; or opening branch houses." 

As the foremost question of the manufacturer or 
American business firm is concerning the cost of start- 
ing his foreign business in a country like Chile, I asked 
concerning the expense of the first step to be taken. 
Mr. Havens replied: 

"The manufacturer will doubtless select the cheapest 
method of getting acquainted, and that method will 
probably be by correspondence. Even this method 
will cost something, and will probably demand the em- 
ployment, or the assignment, of a clerk or expert secre- 
tary to that duty. It would seem that the average cost 
to the average factory, providing there is assigned to 
the work a man conversant with the language of the 
territory with which business is sought (and there is 
absolutely no use in trying to use English in this field), 
and a man who is intelligent and has initiative, would 
be something as follows: 



202 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 



Clerk hire $] 


,350-00 


Literature 


500.00 


Postage and stationery 


500.00 


Samples 


100.00 


Advertising in export and in some 




foreign newspapers 


200.00 


Purchase of text books, govern- 




ment publications, extra credit 




service 


200.00 


Firm membership in some export 




ass'n. 


150.00 



Total $3000.00" 

It was further suggested in connection with this first 
move in establishing foreign business on the West 
Coast that an energetic export secretary might be able 
to present a knowledge of the firm's products to six 
thousand possible purchasers during the year, with an 
average cost of fifty cents given to each potential client. 
When the firm, as a result of this work, has a list of 
one thousand or even five hundred Chilean business 
houses who are really interested in the manufactured 
article, the advisability of sending out a salesman may 
well be considered. Business men here will usually tell 
one that the selection of the expert secretary, if he has 
been carefully chosen as a capable man, and has made 
himself familiar with the products of the factory, will 
be the best man for this salesman's work, since he is 
familiar with the correspondence. It is thus important 
that the employer himself shall use his personal and 
best selection of this man who is to be the forerunner 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 203 

of this important branch of his business in a foreign 
land. It is usually considered that the careful choosing 
of an efficient man for this work of initial correspond- 
ence would practically bring in sufficient orders in 
advance to meet the expense of this agent's first trip 
abroad. 

In all this prior correspondence, if the letters are not 
signed personally by the manufacturer himself (and 
not with a rubber stamp) , the secretary should be given 
a title, which would be added to his own personal sig- 
nature such as "Foreign Sales Secretary" or "Sales 
Manager." This first step in gaining foreign business 
may seem an unimportant detail, but experience on the 
field proves absolutely the necessity of devoting to it 
the most careful thought and attention. 

The travelling salesman brings to all business that 
element which is so essential in the accomplishment of 
results, namely, personal contact. 

In South America, especially, he is probably the only 
man connected with the interests in the United States 
whom the retailer sees, and his appearance, personality 
and character will form the mental picture in the minds 
of the client regarding the firm represented by the 
salesman. As he makes friends with the customer, so 
will the firm, and if the traveller creates unpleasant 
sentiments, the firm will suffer in consequence. 

There are many things to be taken into consideration 
regarding the salesman coming to the South American 
republics, but the first is that he should know his busi- 
ness and be of a pleasing personality. The next is 
that he should speak the language of the country, 
which, with the exception of Brazil, is Spanish. With- 



204 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

out this knowledge he will be handicapped and can only- 
talk through an interpreter, and it is well known that 
any argument passing through two languages always 
loses in force. 

The representative of the house should be an edu- 
cated man, and be able to conduct himself properly at 
all times. South Americans are a polished, cosmopoli- 
tan people, and have an extensive knowledge of coun- 
tries other than their own. A rather laughable inci- 
dent occurred at Payta, Peru. An American salesman 
was leaning over the rail of the boat anchored in the 
harbour, talking with a cultivated South American who 
was returning home from an extended trip around the 
world. They were looking at the dreary wastes of 
sandy Payta, when the South American said, "This 
reminds me of Aden," referring to the city on the Red 
Sea. The American said, "Oh, yes, that's the next 
port!" The astonished man looked up and said, "No, 
Aden — Aden on the Red Sea, you know." The 
American insisted that "Eten" was the next port, and 
even when the courteous man from Chile explained, the 
American shook his head. He had never heard of 
Aden, but Eten was the next port. 

The travelling man's business is not in society, but 
rather with men at their place of business, yet he should 
always have dress clothes, as it is seldom that he can 
travel through South America and not feel the necessity 
of a dinner coat. He will have to dress for dinner on 
many of the European boats, at some of the hotels, and 
occasionally at the clubs or theatres where he may go 
in the evening. He is reducing a year's acquaintance 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 205 

to a few days' time, and must be seen always at his 
best. 

One gets the idea that the South American business 
man will not talk business, that he wishes to discuss the 
opera or the horse races instead of the price of tacks 
or automobiles or farm machinery. This is not so at 
all. It is a fact that he does not spring into the sub- 
ject at hand with the same speed as does the American, 
but he is a business man and understands why the 
salesman is visiting him, and is perfectly willing not 
to waste his time in talking of outside matters. 

The successful men sent out here are not the bluster- 
ing kind nor the profane kind, nor the kind that think 
that Broadway is the origin of latitude and longitude 
and the sum of life. Getting business in Chile or 
Bolivia is as difficult as it is in Boston or Butte, Mon- 
tana, with the added difference of language, and a 
chance for misunderstanding concerning credit informa- 
tion, transportation facilities, knowledge of shipping, 
of insurance, and of the commercial laws. There is 
also the inability of the salesman to see the head of his 
business and his consequent dependence upon his own 
judgment. 

If a traveller comes to Chile, for example, his fare 
will be about $225.00 from New York to Valparaiso. 
His board and room at a hotel will cost from $4.50 
to $6.00 per day; laundry work is about fifty per cent 
higher than in the United States (the destruction of 
same at least one hundred per cent higher), and the 
pressing of a suit or an overcoat costs from $1.50 to 
$2.00. Lunch at a club or restaurant costs about $1.50 
to $2.00 and dinner about twenty-five cents more. If 



206 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

one has guests it is almost the universal custom to 
serve wine both with lunch and dinner. It is figured 
that $225.00 per month should cover the expenses, of 
living and a reasonable amount of entertaining. It 
will not cover transportation, cables, stenographic help, 
handling sample baggage, sample rooms, nor any per- 
sonal entertainment. Railway rates are low, but all 
baggage is extra, as well as parlour seats. One sales- 
man, who has recently made a trip through Bolivia, 
estimated that his travelling expenses, including trans- 
portation, hotel and baggage (about 200 pounds), 
was about $250.00 per month. This would naturally 
vary slightly in each country, as Bolivia is more ex- 
pensive than Chile in hotel rates. Where the standard 
of living is higher, the cost of entertaining would nat- 
urally be more and incidental expenses larger. 

There is a great advantage in having the same man 
cover the territory year after year, as the second trip 
is likely to be more satisfactory than the first, and the 
salesman will be meeting with old friends instead of 
having to make acquaintances in each place. That is 
one of the complaints of the South American against 
American firms. He says the salesmen from Euro- 
pean countries return year after year, and he feels 
they are his friends, while the American salesman never 
returns. The average business man resents the neces- 
sity of having to discuss his business with a new man 
each year. 

There is a vast field in South America for the Ameri- 
can manufacturer, and he depends largely in opening 
this new field, and of retaining the business when once 
gained, upon the personality of his representative. 



OPPORTUNITIES ON THE WEST COAST 207 

The Latin temperament requires study. The "hurry 
up" business methods of our American men will not 
work here with these easy-going people. They do 
not want an aggressive, hustling salesman to burst into 
their offices and call them by their first name after the 
first interview. They want to deal with a gentleman, 
a man of the world, who can understand their courtesy 
and return it. 

They do not understand the "self-made" man, in 
love with his Creator, and they believe that although 
a man is in business, it does not or can not prevent 
him from being a gentleman. Consequently, American 
manufacturers who are looking ahead and seeing the 
vast possibilities of this southern country, should send 
their best men — men who can fit themselves to new 
conditions. 



CHAPTER XIV 

PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 

"A right good thing is prudence, 
And they are useful friends 
Who never make beginnings 
Until they see the ends. 
But give me now and then a man 
And I will make him king, 
Just to take the consequences, 
And just to do the thing." 

AN alumnus of Harvard tells the story of a small 
gathering of Harvard graduates, of whom 
Colonel Roosevelt was a member, meeting at Cam- 
bridge for a heart-to-heart talk relative to the things 
that help men to succeed. When it came to the 
Colonel's turn to make confession, he is reported to 
have said that there were two kinds of men who suc- 
ceed in life ; one because of unusual intellectual ability, 
and another because of possessing the discernment to 
see the thing that every one realised should be done, 
but, while others were thinking about it, this man went 
forward and did it. 

There are many who will agree that Colonel Roose- 
velt falls into this latter category, but the trait is not 
Rooseveltian simply; it is American, and he who tries 
to analyse the historical development of men and con- 

208 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 209 

cerns in this new world of the West, will find appear- 
ing, again and again, this virile, prompt acceptance of 
opportunity, this combination of vision and action, 
bringing about far-reaching accomplishment. 

There are many men in these United States who 
could be taken to illustrate this principle woven into the 
fibre of Americans. Among these becoming distinc- 
tive in world-wide pioneering in the realm of shipping, 
trading, and transportation generally, certain members 
of the house of W. R. Grace & Co. are notable. If 
one doubts this statement, let him ponder the fact that 
this company's tonnage of steamers, constructed by 
themselves, and not including the steamers chartered 
by them, reaches 140,000 tons; that the firm employs in 
South American offices 2,700 men; that the total em- 
ployes in the industrial establishment reach 25,000; 
that the business during the year 19 17 aggregates 
$250,000,000; and that last year Grace & Co. were 
the largest shippers of coffee out of Rio de Janeiro and 
the largest importers of nitrate of soda into the United 
States. 

Those who are looking for significant events in these 
days, when the country is beginning to take a fresh hold 
upon marine matters, can find in the story of this activ- 
ity a subject for thoughtful interest. On the second day 
of February, 19 18, the Santa Ana, the first ship of a 
new American passenger line, sailed from a Brooklyn 
pier for South America. This line has been authorised 
by the United States Shipping Board to be operated for 
government account by W. R. Grace & Co. between 
New York and the West Coast of South America. 
The sailing marked the fulfilment of a long-desired 



210 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

dream. This service represents eighteen days dura- 
tion between New York and Valparaiso, as against 
twenty-five days heretofore required by changing 
steamers at Panama, and Callao, Peru. The passen- 
gers on the Santa Ana from New York will be able to 
reach Buenos Aires via the West Coast of South 
America and the Trans-Andean Railroad from Val- 
paraiso in twenty-two days, which is virtually as quick 
as the fastest steamers direct from New York to Buenos 
Aires by the East Coast route. 

This line of steamers was projected and the ships 
ordered by W. R. Grace & Co., before the war. When 
all tonnage under construction was commandeered by 
the United States Shipping Board, authority was given 
for the completion of these ships as passenger vessels. 
This was done because it is necessary to maintain an 
adequate American tonnage for the carriage of Chilean 
nitrate so necessary for munition and fertilisation. By 
reserving these new ships for that trade the Shipping 
Board fills the need for a passenger line to the West 
Coast in harmony with the earnest recommendations 
made by the late Chilean Ambassador, Sr. Aldunate, 
and the International High Commission, of which Sec- 
retary McAdoo is Chairman, and Dr. L. S. Rowe of 
Philadelphia, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, is 
Secretary General. At the same time the passenger 
service does not represent an increase in tonnage to the 
West Coast, for these vessels merely take the place of 
a dozen or more Grace boats commandeered by the 
United States and British Governments for military 
service. Some have been sunk by German raiders and 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 211 

U-boats, and one was all but destroyed in the Halifax 
explosion. 

On the return trip the passenger ships will carry 
nitrate, a vital material. All the profits above the 
charter go to the Government. 

One needs to have made the long and tedious 
voyage from New York to Valparaiso, weaving in and 
out of the open roadsteads along the bleak coast of 
Ecuador, Peru and Chile, enduring the distressing de- 
lays of loading and unloading in each one of these 
small ports, where modern docking facilities are con- 
spicuous by their absence, in order to appreciate the 
significance of this new undertaking. 

Hitherto all passenger service on the West Coast of 
South America has been carried on under the Brit- 
ish, Chilean, Peruvian, and German flags. Even the 
United States mail could not be carried south of Pan- 
ama beneath the Stars and Stripes. The Merchants' 
Line, operating under the American flag, has consisted 
of freight vessels only. At this period when our at- 
tention is riveted so completely upon the war, such 
events as the sailing of the Santa Ana are easily ob- 
scured, but in normal times the international signifi- 
cance of this sailing could justly have filled the columns 
of the press from Maine to San Francisco. Secre- 
tary McAdoo declared that, even while the United 
States is absorbed in the war, the inauguration of this 
passenger service through the action of the Shipping 
Board, under Chairman Hurley, demonstrated the 
Government's constructive efforts to promote closer 
commercial and social relations with Latin America. 
It is one of those remarkable accomplishments achieved 



212 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

in times of war, looking forward to a future of peace, 
when the flag of the United States again, as in the 
days of the old clipper ships, will float on the sea as 
well as on land. 

It is a significant event for the merchant marine, 
and for general trade with our southern neighbour, 
since this line of steamships will carry as freight ni- 
trates and other South American materials necessary to 
America's industrial prosecution of the war, and will 
bear back to the West Coast the merchandise that 
the United States gives in exchange. The Santa Ana 
will thus be a symbol of that new reciprocal trade be- 
tween North and South America toward which so many 
earnest men in both hemispheres have looked and la- 
boured for many a year. 

Following the Santa Ana will come her sister ship 
Santa Lucia and then later on in this present year of 
19 1 8 the three remaining vessels of the fleet. These 
"Santa" ships are 5,700 dead weight, thirteen and one- 
half knots speed, each one possessing accommodations 
for one hundred first class passengers. These steam- 
ers will burn oil exclusively, and they have capacity 
for 5,400 tons of cargo. One notes that the cabins 
are all on the superstructure, showing that their build- 
ers had in mind comfortable travel in the tropics. 
It is expected that after the war a considerable Amer- 
ican tourist traffic to the West Coast will fill these 
splendid steamers. The line will be operated as a 
common carrier, subject to the regulation of the United 
States Shipping Board regarding rates and facilities 
of service. As the American traveller has always had 
a large part in the opening of American foreign trade, 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 213 

the strategic value of this progressive achievement can 
be realised, even by the least imaginative of men. 

The importance of the inception of this line of pas- 
senger boats can be further appreciated by a glance 
at the picture of the old sailing vessel built in 1873, an 
American ship of 1,893 tons, with three decks, rep- 
resenting one of the best of her kind and period. This 
old ship carried general cargo from New York to San 
Francisco, sailing around the Southern Continent, and 
taking from eighty-five to one hundred days. On her 
long voyage she stopped at ports along the West Coast 
for guano, and at San Francisco she unloaded her 
cargo and took on grain for Liverpool. It is well to 
stop for a moment to ponder the meaning of these two 
ships, the one representing the flourishing commerce 
of another generation — then an intervening period of 
forty years — and now one of the first signals of the 
renaissance of a new shipping day for the United States, 
when Americans are beginning afresh to lay the foun- 
dations of marine intercommunication with the entire 
world. 

There are few more interesting stories of ships and 
trade than the one connected with the firm whose vision 
and efficiency have made possible these wide reaching 
achievements. It is a tale of inspiring accomplish- 
ment, and like other accomplishments in their begin- 
nings at least, it is woven about the work and person- 
ality of a single man. 

W. R. Grace & Co., whose activity extends over 
seventy years of remarkable history, covering nearly 
every phase of trading, transportation, banking, and 
the alert acceptance of foreign financial opportunity, 



214 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

began its development in the adventurous determina- 
tion of William Russell Grace, who was born in 
Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland, May ioth, 1832. 
His parents were well-to-do Irish landowners. It is 
said that Mr. Grace received his first impression of 
America by mixing with American sailors in the port 
of his home town. There are many romantic stones 
of his early life, one of which narrates the way in 
which at fourteen he ran away from home to board 
a sailing vessel as cabin boy, a vessel that brought 
young Grace to New York as his first landing place 
on the Western continent. 

During these early years Mr. Grace found his way 
to Peru, and there, before he was twenty years old, he 
became manager of the English firm of John Bryce, 
which later became Bryce, Grace & Co., and then Grace 
Bros. Co. Mr. Grace's father before him had been 
trying to colonise Peru, and it was natural that the 
son's interest should turn in theisame direction. 

The advent of Mr. Grace in the country of Pizarro 
was an epoch-making event in the history of Peru, as 
well as in his own career. His allegiance to the United 
States was shown early in his work when, during the 
American civil war, both the English and native houses 
of Peru decided against extending credit to vessels of 
the United States Navy which frequently stopped at 
Callao for naval supplies. Although Mr. Grace was 
not an American citizen at that time, he unhesitatingly 
placed the resources of his house at the disposal of the 
United States Navy, thus bridging over successfully a 
delicate international situation. 

After twenty years of work in Peru, this pioneering 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 215 

trader, because of ill health, was compelled to retire 
from business. It is indicative of the type of man as 
of his industry, that he returned from Peru with a 
capital of about $300,000. Branches of the house 
had been established already in Lima, Callao, Val- 
paraiso, San Francisco, Santiago and Concepcion. The 
firm controlled a large share of the foreign shipping 
trade on the South American west coast, a business 
which has constantly increased with many ramifica- 
tions, until now the name of Grace & Co. is as famil- 
iar as a household word in well-nigh every section be- 
tween Panama and Patagonia. The traveller to-day 
is shown a small fishing shanty in Callao which is said 
to be the site of Mr. Grace's first business house in 
South America — the humble beginning of more than 
sixty branches and agencies of the present large for- 
eign business of this company in Latin America. 

The New York branch of the company was estab- 
lished in the year 1868. Mr. Grace rapidly became 
financially powerful as director of the Lincoln Bank, 
the New York and Pacific Steam Ship Company, the 
New York Life Insurance Company, and as President 
of the Ingersoll Sargeant Drill Company. He touched 
all of his enterprises with the wand of success. 

In 1880 the famine in Ireland brought Mr. Grace 
prominently into public attention. His large contri- 
butions to the Relief Fund called forth deep apprecia- 
tion from his native land. In the same year he be- 
came candidate for Mayor of New York City and was 
opposed by all the newspapers except the Star; as has 
happened repeatedly in New York, he was elected for 



216 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

a two year term without the majority of the press 
support. 

Mr. Grace was a reformer as well as merchant and 
trader. He was responsible for the passage of the 
bill depriving the police of control over street cleaning, 
and examination of the newspaper accounts of that 
period lead one to believe that the streets of New 
York for the first time in their history began to take 
on a semblance of cleanliness. He also reduced the 
tax rate, and at the end of his term, in the whirligig of 
political fortunes, he was exuberantly praised by all 
the newspapers of the city with the exception of the 
Star, the one paper that supported him at the begin- 
ning. When General Grant died, Mayor Grace of- 
fered the parks of the city for his burial ground. In 
1884, after being out of office for two years, he was 
again nominated for Mayor of the city by an inde- 
pendent democratic party, and in a hotly contested 
election he carried the city by ten thousand votes. 

It is of interest in looking backward to note the in- 
fluence Mr. Grace played in the election of Grover 
Cleveland for President. The State of New York fa- 
voured Hill for Presidential nominee, but Mr. Grace, 
thinking Cleveland the better man, took it upon him- 
self to canvass the whole United States and arouse 
sentiment in favour of Cleveland's nomination. With 
the arousal of the other states of the Union, it is fairly 
granted that Mr. Grace exerted one of the chief in- 
fluences for bringing President Cleveland into the 
White House. 

The far-reaching influence of the founder of this 
house, together with his strong financial and commer- 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 217 

cial leadership, was, from the beginning, important for 
South America. 

During the period of Mr. Grace's political career 
the business and the scope of the firm were reaching 
large proportions. During the financial troubles of 
Peru, when, between 1865 and 1871, Peru had con- 
tracted a debt with English bondholders amounting 
with interest to $200,000,000, the Grace firm played 
an important role. In the year 1887 Mr. M. P. 
Grace tried to reach an agreement whereby the rail- 
roads of Peru could be turned over to the bondhold- 
ers in payment of the debt, offering his services as 
agent in the transaction. Peru in 1889 accepted the 
plans of the Grace bondholders' contract, and it was 
then that W. R. Grace & Co., a firm of only a genera- 
tion's growth, took upon its shoulders the national 
Peruvian debt of $250,000,000 in payment of which 
obligation it contracted to develop the railroads, min- 
eral, chemical, guano and other resources of the coun- 
try for a period of sixty-six years. 

The assumption of this national debt by the Grace 
Co. marked the beginning of a new era of prosper- 
ity for Peru. The war with Chile had left Peru with- 
out capital or energy sufficient to pay the indemnity 
levied upon her by Chile, and her credit finally be- 
came exhausted to such an extent that bondholders 
began to clamour for their money. At this crisis Mr. 
Grace offered his services to both bondholders and the 
Peruvian government, making the contract that can- 
celled the foreign debt of the country. Under this 
provision the bondholders released the government 
"fully, absolutely and irrevocably from all responsibil- 



218 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

ities for the loans of 1869, 1870 and 1872." In re- 
turn the government ceded to the bondholders all the 
railways for sixty-six years and the products of its 
guano beds, etc. It was a triumph of financiering, 
worthy of the highest ability and far-sighted instincts 
in foreign enterprises. 

The house of Grace, always interested in ships as 
one of the main understructures of its work, started 
the direct pioneer steamship line between New York 
and the West Coast of South America in 1892, and 
the Grace clipper service to San Francisco came in 
the same year. From this date both of these lines 
have increased with great rapidity, and their manage- 
ment gives high promise for the development of the 
new lines now being projected. 

In 1894, all the Grace houses were consolidated into 
a corporation under the name of W. R. Grace & Co. 
The firm completed in 19 10 the gigantic railroad en- 
terprise across the Cordilleras, the Trans-Andes Rail- 
road, thus making a through railroad system from 
Valparaiso to Buenos Aires, which will forever rank as 
one of the great railroad accomplishments of the world. 

Mr. Grace's activities in politics ended when, in 
1895, he resigned from the chairmanship of the State 
Democratic Committee by reason of the condition of 
his health and the requirements of his growing busi- 
ness. On March 21st, 1904, Mr. Grace died, leav- 
ing the mantle of his leadership and responsibilities 
upon his son and the loyal and capable body of men 
whom he had gathered about him during these years, 
when one of the great trading and transportation 
houses was in formation and development. Among 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 219 

the services growing out of this house is the Grace 
Institute established in 1898, an establishment for the 
training of young women in business and domestic sci- 
ence. To this institution Mr. Grace gave a most gen- 
erous sum for its foundation, and his interest was ac- 
tive in it so long as he lived. The work is now carried 
on by his family under the direction of the Sisters of 
St. Vincent de Paul. 

A study of this operating company increases the con- 
viction that foreign trade, while it must have ships, 
carrying ships for produce and passenger ships through 
the medium of which men in different countries may 
become acquainted, there must be laid also a basis for 
work over wide areas. In other words, it is the busi- 
ness of such a house to make the trade for ship car- 
riers; and this the Grace house has accomplished in a 
manner unknown to those who have not given atten- 
tion to its wide-spreading agencies. 

Apart from the central offices in New York, one 
will find to-day branches of the company in at least 
fifteen different cities of the United States, stretching 
all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast. In 
the San Francisco branch alone three hundred men 
are engaged. The service flag of the New York house 
contains 105 stars, about one employe in five being 
under arms. In Canada at Montreal, in Central 
America and the West Indies; in Mexico, Guatemala, 
Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba and 
Jamaica, in some of these countries several branches; 
on the West Coast of South America; in Chile at 
twenty different cities and towns; and in Peru at six- 
teen points the Grace agencies are established. In 



220 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Bolivia, the mountain republic, Grace & Co. is do- 
ing business with five stations. Ecuador has flourish- 
ing agencies at Guayaquil and Quito ; Argentina on the 
East Coast, at Buenos Aires; Brazil at Rio de Ja- 
neiro and Santos ; and in Venezuela, the traveller finds 
a branch at Caracas. 

The company has reached out into Europe preparing 
there foundations for its world trade; in London, 
Liverpool, Manchester, Genoa, Stockholm, Barcelona, 
Madrid and Petrograd, one will meet with the repre- 
sentatives of this company in branches under various 
names. 

This entire work is served by the three steamship 
companies owned by this house, the Grace Steamship 
Company, Atlantic and Pacific Steamship Company, 
New York and Pacific Steamship Company, Ltd., while 
it has a substantial interest in the Pacific Mail Steam- 
ship Company. 

In answer to my question as to the general aims of 
this house, a member of the firm said: 

"We are building always: we consider ourselves to 
be merchants primarily, but the activities of the com- 
pany are many and diverse. We are industrial de- 
velopers, steamship men, bankers, nitrate merchants 
as well as promoters of all kinds of public service and 
industries — everything in fact that tends especially to 
the development of South America, where our activities 
have so largely centred." 

In Chile, for example, there is need of a woollen mill, 
a cotton mill, or a large sugar development, or trolley 
lines. The company sees the opportunity and is ready 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 221 

to finance and develop the enterprise. Water and 
light are required for the towns far in the interior, 
and the agents of this firm become the pioneers of civ- 
ilisation through large areas isolated from the modern 
world. It neither seeks nor operates concessions from 
governments. 

The nitrate properties of South America developed 
and carried on by this company form a large foreign 
business by themselves. There are eight or ten of 
these properties, employing fifteen thousand men. 

A portion of the terminal facilities, about one-tenth 
of all such facilities along the West Coast of South 
America, in places like the big nitrate port of Anto- 
fagasta, for example, are owned by the company, as 
well as the wharves, the launches and the tugs. There 
is no more familiar sight in the frequent stoppings of 
the Chilean and Peruvian steamers along the West 
Coast than the Grace launch. 

In Bolivia one finds large lumber mills, as along 
the coast of Peru he visits the guano estates and 
branch houses dealing in nitrate of soda in Chile. 
There are three big cotton mills back of Lima that 
correspond in size and work with like institutions in 
any part of the world. I visited some of these and 
was amazed, not only at the large accomplishments, 
but also at the equipment in modern machinery and the 
organisation of the workers. 

One soon learns that the common idea that this com- 
pany is simply a big commission house, is a most in- 
adequate description of this enterprise. This was only 
an early stage in its progress. Its activity now is that 
of the merchant, buying and selling, and transporta- 



222 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

tion in ships. Not long ago the Government of Chile 
required a new railroad shop, repair shops, and every- 
thing going with the equipment of machinery and fa- 
cilities; the Grace company contracted to bring the 
entire plant into being. 

Through the leadership of Mr. W. R. Grace the 
firm figured in the early attempt to build the Nic- 
aragua Canal. In 1897-98 Mr. Grace gathered 
twenty-five men into a syndicate which raised a fund 
of five hundred thousand dollars, spending $400,000 
in the early plans for the building of the canal. Going 
to President McKinley with his project, Mr. Grace re- 
ceived the following answer from the President: 

"This is interesting, but how are you going to get 
the money?" The merchant answered, "I will raise 
one hundred million dollars and shall expect the United 
States to put up another hundred million at a low rate 
of interest. Our syndicate wants to build the Nic- 
aragua Canal and we have shown our practical desire 
by already expending nearly half a million dollars." 

(This undertaking more than twenty years ago 
should not be confused nor connected with the War- 
ner-Miller episode or with such attempts as the one 
with which Senator Morgan was associated.) 

After some thought about the matter, President 
McKinley informed Mr. Grace that the Government 
wished to build the Panama Canal. The merchant 
asked what would be done to reimburse his associates 
for the half million dollars already spent on the proj- 
ect, at which Mr. McKinley answered: 

"You men are all wealthy and can afford to lose 
the money." 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 223 

Mr. Grace cheerfully accepted the decision and 
went on with his other work. 

In my contact with this house in various parts of 
South America I have been impressed with what is 
called the "Grace spirit." The attempt is made, suc- 
cessfully for the most part, to show the various agents 
and men connected with the company that the house 
represents a great American enterprise, and that each 
representative stands for something more than a mere 
business agent, that, in fact, he reflects the ideals of the 
nation behind him. 

I was much interested in the club or the mess, as it 
is often called, where Grace men live together in South 
American countries. A house is rented and made 
homelike as a place for the men without families. A 
steward and treasurer are elected, and the house is 
equipped with reading matter, billiard tables, pianola, 
and other conveniences for producing a homelike at- 
mosphere. Many of the plants are situated far from 
the cities, and these clubs are virtually oases in far 
away sections of Peru, Bolivia and Chile, where the 
comforts and amenities of civilisation have not yet 
penetrated. 

In a great nitrate community in Chile, for instance, 
there may be only a small circle of Americans repre- 
senting the officers, possibly half a dozen or nine men 
who are responsible for running an enormous plant. 
Outside is the camp for the workmen. The evenings 
for Americans in such localities are likely to be a 
nightmare of loneliness. There is lack of companion- 
ship and social opportunities such as those to which the 
men have been accustomed at home. The company 



2M UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

has been quick to appreciate this fact and to provide, 
not only comfortable quarters, but to establish customs 
intended to give the officers a life by themselves, and 
to prevent such unfortunate mixtures with the camp 
community as would disrupt discipline and morals. I 
found it the custom for every one of the official staff 
from the manager down, after work, was over, to don 
a dress suit or dinner jacket preparatory for dinner, 
while afterwards, opportunities were offered for games 
and amusements in the club. As one man put it, 
"None of us are inclined to find our way down to the 
camps in a dinner jacket. When you put on the dress 
of a gentleman you are inclined to act like one." 

On the big sugar estates at Cartavia, in Peru, a 
church has been founded recently, also a schoolhouse, 
a hospital and a moving picture theatre. The influ- 
ence of these organisations has been manifested di- 
rectly upon the community of workmen. Formerly it 
was customary during the holidays for "every one to 
get drunk for a week," according to the statement of 
one of the men. One of the dealers in chicha, the 
Peruvian national drink, stated to a manager not long 
ago, that as a result of the church and theatre busi- 
ness, he had been obliged to go out of business; for 
while he had been accustomed to sell ten barrels of 
chicha during certain holiday periods, it was now im- 
possible for him to get rid of more than one barrel. 
It has further resulted that instead of several days of 
shut-down on account of the dissipation of the holi- 
days, there is rarely more than one day of stoppage on 
the estates through any inability of the men to work 
as a result of excessive indulgence in drink. The 



PIONEERS IN SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE 225 

Grace Institute has helped in making these isolated 
plantations and estates enjoyable and livable. Last 
year two hundred presents were sent down to this par- 
ticular sugar estate at Christmas time, with several 
hundred boxes of candy and other gifts. Such work, 
as one man said, "has put Christmas on the map in 
this community." 

A glance at these efforts toward the building of for- 
eign trade impresses the fact that the United States, 
through the medium of its business men, is confronted 
with a diverse problem relative to the enlarging com- 
merce with other nations, and especially with South 
America. There is no doubt that the merchant ma- 
rine comes first as a primal requirement, but ships are 
only one part of the problem. They are carriers only, 
and the development of trade depends upon a variety 
of agencies such as are here outlined, — agencies that 
have been wrought out through seventy years of ex- 
perience by one American firm. What Grace & Co. 
have done in South America, other houses can do, and 
doubtless will do in the coming years. It will be eas- 
ier, furthermore, for American traders and merchants 
and steamship men to plant their work in the foreign 
soil of Latin America because of such far-sighted and 
efficient pioneering. Grace & Co. is one of the Amer- 
ican houses which have successfully led the way. 
These men have revealed, for Government and for 
manufacturers and shippers generally, some things 
that can be done. 

The insistent question which every enterprising 
business house of our country must face to-day is 
this: "How can our particular house most quickly and 



226 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

efficiently fall into line along the great trade routes 
that lead to South America, thus casting out a sheet 
anchor for our future, and adding the commerce of the 
seas to business at home?" 



CHAPTER XV 

THE ARGENTINES 

AFTER months of travel and mingled experiences 
along the west coast of South America, where 
one has found the months of June, July and August 
as cold as November in the United States, the traveller 
is possessed with a sense of relief as he finds himself 
sliding down the eastern side of the Andes into the 
great vineyards and smiling gardens of Argentina. It 
seems hardly credible that one day's ride on the 
Trans-Andean railway is sufficient to bring one out of 
the region where furs and steamer rugs are quite ac- 
ceptable, into this vast land of seemingly endless plains, 
marked with all the signs of the temperate zone. 

In many respects Argentina impresses one as being 
a different world from that of the more mediaeval and 
less progressive agricultural and industrial republics 
west of the Andes. 

Mendoza, the first large Argentine town one sees 
after crossing the mountains, is like a patch of Cal- 
ifornia with its wide orchards, its extensive vineyards 
and its acres of melons, peaches, apricots and fields of 
maize. The train whirls one through great planta- 
tions of fruit trees, and you are told that Mendoza 
alone has more than 3,000 acres of such orchards as 
well as 140,000 acres of irrigated land, producing 

227 



228 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

grapes. Already the fruit from this section is find- 
ing its way into the New York markets, and larger ar- 
rangements than ever before have recently been made 
to ship Argentine grapes to the United States next 
autumn. As this fruit supply, unequalled in quality 
even in California, will reach North America in the 
off season for grapes, this export business, which is a 
comparatively new thing for Argentina as regards 
fruits and vegetables, is rich in promise. 

It is, however, when the traveller has made a night's 
run from the strictly mountain towns and wakens to 
look out of the windows of his sleeping car to behold 
the vast pampa of level and productive plain unrolling 
before him on all sides, that the real Argentina begins 
to be tangible. It is like sailing on almost a perfectly 
level sea that bends away to the horizon, with naught 
to obstruct the vision save here and there a clump of 
poplars, which signify the ranch buildings of a big 
"estancia." 

One is struck with the absence of woods, but as one 
proceeds and studies the landscape he sees great herds 
of cattle, immense flocks of sheep and here and there 
grey patches, which on nearer view are discovered to 
be composed of Argentine ostriches. Then there are 
the stretches of grain fields which seem to reach every- 
where and have no boundaries — thousands of acres of 
wheat and corn. One has reached the country where 
farms are measured not by acres but by square leagues, 
and if you ask the size of a farm, the answer will often 
fairly appal you — for these vast feudal "estancias" 
comprise all the way from 12,000 to 200,000 acres 
each, and agriculture is on a scale that would seem 



THE ARGENTINES 229 

fabulous even to the farmers in Kansas, Nebraska and 
the Dakotas. 

One of the stations one passes through early in the 
day is called "Open Door." It seemed a fitting title 
to this resourceful country of incalculable potentiality* 
where the national domain still consists of upwards of 
200,000,000 acres of undivided land suitable for cul- 
tivation, when properly irrigated. 

The element of contrast between this progressive 
agricultural country and the republics on the west coast 
is decidedly impressive. The differences are so great 
that the attempt to generalise regarding the people or 
the resources of the South American republics usually 
ends in showing but one side of the picture. How 
could one, for example, speak of the small patches of 
cultivated land, in the mountains of southern Peru, 
upon which the Indians eke out a scanty existence, in 
the same breath with these vast Argentine farms sup- 
plied with virtually every modern convenience of steel 
and iron? These ancient descendants of the Incas 
driving their herds of llamas and alpacas on the sides 
of the Peruvian Cordilleras, would find themselves in 
a new world and strange here in this immense country 
with its 30,000,000 head of horned cattle, its 70,000,- 
000 sheep and 8,000,000 horses, a country that esti- 
mates its live stock capital in terms of wealth amount- 
ting to $650,000,000. 

The very stature of the people, together with their 
vigour and independent initiative, are changed as soon 
as one crosses the great divide and comes into con- 
tact with the railroad officials of this rapidly growing 
republic. It is much more like the United States here 



230 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

in Argentina, and modernity confronts one on every 
side. The labouring man is no longer a dark-skinned 
chola or a picturesque Indian bending beneath an in- 
tolerable load, with his eyes on the ground, trotting 
along with that peculiar motion characteristic of the 
human beast of burden; here rather he is an upstand- 
ing, self-respecting labourer, alert — and looking for 
the new and rapidly opening doors of opportunity in 
his progressive republic. He is, indeed, for the most 
part of European stock, from Italy, France and Spain, 
and he has come to Argentina as Europeans have been 
coming to the United States for the past thirty-five 
years, to make for himself a home. The immigrants to 
Argentina, furthermore, have been as a rule superior 
to those who have come from Italy to the United 
States. The Argentine Italian is not usually from 
Naples or Sicily, but from the northern provinces, and 
he comes here to engage in commerce, even more than 
for labour upon the land. One notices the difference 
in the family life, the women and children looking 
far more prosperous and well fed, while the homes 
are better as compared with those found in the United 
States in industrial communities, where the immigrants 
from southwestern Europe are herded together. 

It has been well said that here in Argentina the 
Latins of Europe are blooming again and economic 
opportunity and prosperity have awakened within them 
a new hope. 

This first impression of contrasts between the west 
and the east coast is amplified as one's train pulls into 
the beautiful city -of Buenos Aires with its 1,700,000 
inhabitants, revealing a type of life as cosmopolitan 



THE ARGENTINES 231 

as can be found perhaps in any city of the world. One 
is first possessed with the realisation that he is again 
in a great modern capital surrounded with all the 
marks of material prosperity that men of the twentieth 
century have learned to utilise. 

One is whirled through the streets of shining mac- 
adam in high-powered motor cars, and is told that 
there are in the city more than 4,000 privately owned 
automobiles with 2,000 motor carriages for hire. 
Buenos Aires breaks upon one, whose eyes have been 
accustomed to a long day's ride of level plain, as a 
kind of dream city, with its great plazas, immense 
houses and public buildings resembling so closely, with 
their elaborately ornamented fagades, Paris or Berlin 
that one needs almost to rub his eyes to make sure 
that he is not upon the other side of the Atlantic. 
This greatest city of South America has been called 
"A plaster imitation of Paris," but if one can judge 
from the first impression of bustling commercial activ- 
ity, and the large reconstruction projects which are 
now under way, to make the city more capable for 
the ever-growing trade, this city of the plains is some- 
thing quite other and different than the Parisian 
capital. 

To be sure, when one walks down the broad Avenida 
de Mayo, which is said to resemble closely a street 
of Paris, and especially when at night the sidewalks 
are filled before the large cafes and restaurants with 
small tables around which sit the Argentines, one can 
readily think he is on the Boulevard des Italiens. 

But if on the other hand one could arrive in Buenos 
Aires, as did the writer, during the progress of the 



%3Z UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

big cattle show, when the hotels were filled with land 
owners and farmers from the big "estancias," he would 
secure an impression quite different than that to be 
realised in Paris. He would feel a more virile, agri- 
cultural strain running through the activity of this 
whole city. He would sense a patriotism rising from 
the land, for this country is an agricultural country 
first of all, and in this industry and about it the patri- 
otic and national pride of the people centre. 

To be sure, the great land owners come to Buenos 
Aires and spend their money upon the glittering boule- 
vards, and this makes the city an abnormal one and 
in a sense a false guide to the characteristics of the 
people and the country. Argentina, however, is slowly 
but surely gathering to herself out of the polyglot 
nations of Europe which compose her, a spirit and 
individuality of her own, as free and unique as is the 
air of her boundless prairies. At present she resem- 
bles more truly the old world than does the United 
States, which has had so much longer time to develop 
a modern particular civilisation all her own; yet you 
can hardly insult an Argentine more readily than to 
say that Buenos Aires is merely a copy or tinselled imi- 
tation of a European capital. He sees in it his own 
expression, and although he will tell you that to know 
the country correctly the North American must read 
the history of the United States fifty years ago, he is 
nevertheless deeply confident that Argentina has a fu- 
ture quite different from either the United States or a 
European nation, or, in fact, any other South American 
state. One imagines that the longer one remains in 
the country the more surely he will be inclined to 




ALVAER AVENUE IN BUENOS AIRES. A SUPERB RESIDENCE STREET 



THE ARGENTINES 233 

agree with the inhabitant of this great land, where are 
being gathered forces and population, in an agricultural 
area nearly half as big as the United States, possessing 
resources in many senses more uniform and prolific 
than are to be found in any other one commonwealth 
on the face of the earth. 

Another contrast which strikes immediately the ob- 
server coming to Argentina from the west coast, is 
that of the absence of a large number of churches of 
the mediaeval type. One will be told both in Peru and 
Chile by the adherents of the prevailing Roman Cath- 
olic faith of that section that Argentina is rapidly 
becoming agnostic, and that she has become dazzled by 
the blaze of her material prosperity. 

In a sense this impression would seem to be borne 
out by one's early investigation and conversation with 
the inhabitants. To be sure, the government is still 
connected with the Roman Catholic church to the ex- 
tent that it appropriates money each year for the na- 
tional religion. The families of wealth and distinc- 
tion here also, as on the west coast, are quite closely 
allied with the Roman Catholic church. But a great 
difference is seen in the character of that alliance. It 
seems to be more a matter of politics, of fashion, and 
lacking deep roots in the religious and ecclesiastical 
nature of the people. The women also are very much 
less often seen in the churches, and the poorer classes 
do not seem to be interested in religion to any great 
extent. \ As far as the educated men and women are 
concerned, indifferentism, if not in many cases agnosti- 
cism, seems to be the ruling characteristic. 

Buenos Aires impresses the newcomer with its heavy' 



234 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

laden and sudden materiality. It is like a child who 
has received a lap full of bon bons, or a shop full of 
toys, to which it has been unaccustomed, and has not 
yet learned to use altogether wisely. Its avenues and 
main streets are simply clogged with these evidences 
of new riches, — wonderful shops filled with the most 
costly manufactured products from every land; win- 
dows ablaze with jewels always somewhat larger and 
more costly than one would expect to see displayed. 
Its clubs are marble palaces, filled with paintings and 
statuary and ornate decoration far beyond what even 
necessity or good taste would demand. One finds it 
hard to distinguish what the Argentine would call an 
ordinary dwelling from a public building, so great 
is the penchant for magnificence and display, which is 
easily carried out in modelled stucco. It is the land 
of the high cost of living as well as the high cost of 
everything. It would seem to be one of the most diffi- 
cult places in the world for any one to live with simple 
tastes, and still with respectability. Things are rankly 
external. All seems to be for show. A gentleman who 
advised a visit to a state building said, "Be sure to 
drive up to the building in a motor car. It will make 
a great difference in the attention which the officials 
will show you." 

The great annual stock show at Buenos Aires is a 
national event, and people of all classes and grades of 
society are in attendance. Everything about the fair 
is of intense interest, and there is a knowledge dis- 
played regarding the many kinds of modern machinery 
and a fascination about the stock yards where the 
blooded cattle, sheep and horses are on exhibition, 



THE ARGENTINES 235 

that is unknown even in the United States, which com- 
petes in land values and stock farms with this republic. 

This year, three expert stock judges from North 
America are present at the invitation of the Argentines, 
and the daily press speaks in the most complimentary 
terms of the decisions made by this committee. In re- 
gard to their cattle these people are as extravagant 
with their wealth as in other ways. No expense is 
spared to import the best breeds- from Europe and 
any part of the earth, and a prize- bull was sold this 
year for $20,000. 

One cannot but think that it would be good for the 
country if more attention was given to the distribu- 
tion of lands and the welfare of the colonists, and 
less to the fancy blooded stock which, like the rich 
buildings in Buenos Aires, are subjects for public pride 
more than for utility. However, the glory of this 
great yearly exposition, where Argentine society ap- 
pears alongside of Argentine labour, helps to keep the 
minds of the people riveted upon the fact that the 
republic, more perhaps than any other large state, is 
almost utterly dependent upon the land and its prod- 
ucts for existence and growth. 

In few countries have there been such rapid advances 
in the prices of land. In the year 1885 it was pos- 
sible to purchase land in the city of Buenos Aires for 
75 cents a yard; now it costs $1000 a yard, and the 
market quotations are still showing rising prices. 
Twelve or 15 years ago a suburban lot, 60 by 20 yards, 
could be purchased here for $25; at present the pur- 
chaser would find it necessary to pay at least $750 for 
the same property. Good farm land brings $500,000 



236 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

a square league, and it is the possession of these lands 
in large quantities that makes it possible for the mil- 
lionaire Argentines to whirl down the Avenida de 
Mayo in their $10,000 automobiles and spend the long 
vacations in Europe, making their Capital city the last 
word in the display of wealth of luxury. 

Even New York would be amazed at the prodigal 
use of money in Buenos Aires. A gentleman was show- 
ing a visitor about a public building recently, and, open- 
ing the door into a servant's bathroom, drew his at- 
tention to the carved panels and ceiling, the wood be- 
ing imported for the purpose with the other choice 
wood with which the building was decorated. One is 
told that the officers, during the wars of Argentina 
with her neighbours in former years, were paid their 
salaries in part at least in land; with the later advent 
of railways and an absence of revolutions and wars, 
the prices of these tracts have soared to fabulous 
amounts and these men are now millionaires. It is said 
that in proportion to its size this South American re- 
public has more millionaires than the United States — 
it is a country of land-fortunes. 

In this immense grain- and cattle-producing country 
of 776,000,000 acres, 80,000,000 acres are suitable 
for wheat raising. Yet only about one-fourth of the 
land is now under cultivation, and there are only six 
persons to the square mile. Of this population of 
7,000,000, about three-fourths are Argentines, or peo- 
ple born in the country. There are half a million 
Italians, a quarter of a million of French, 25,000 Brit- 
ishers, and a melting pot of almost 'every nation under 
the sun in smaller numbers. 



THE ARGENTINES 237 

It is stated that each person in Argentina not only 
produces food sufficient for his own needs, but sends 
each year $40 worth of food to other countries. 
Great Britain has been depending on this republic for 
nearly one-fourth of its food products, which is rea- 
son sufficient for the intense interest the Britisher is 
taking at present in the intricate and puzzling matters 
of foreign trade. 

In Argentina, furthermore, the question of land is 
always connected with the subject of labour, and labour 
in turn usually calls up immigration matters, than 
which few subjects are of more vital moment to this 
republic. Like the United States, Argentina has been 
receiving in recent years a flood of immigrants from 
Europe, and like the United States, she also has not 
found the process of assimilation easy or her immigra- 
tion-agrarian system a model of perfection. 

One of the difficulties in this southern republic has 
been the double stream of immigration. While there 
has been an increase in recent years previous to the 
European war of approximately 250,000 inhabitants 
through the stream of immigration, this does not tell 
the whole story. Many thousands more have come to 
this land of opportunity, but for various reasons have 
made but a temporary sojourn here, and, returning to 
Europe, have carried away a vast resource of the land 
both in money and men. 

Between the years 1905 and 1907, for instance, 
there was an immigration into Argentina from Europe 
and Montevideo of 781,796, and in the same period 
324,687 persons left the country for their former 
homes, leaving only a total of 457,108 in three years. 



238 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

According to the estimates of the Department of Im- 
migration, each of these emigrants from the republic 
took with him out of the country on the average $150. 
During these three years the republic lost in this way 
$50,000,000. This reveals grave disorder somewhere 
in the assimilative faculty of the nation, and it has 
aroused the people to renewed attention to their laws 
for immigrants. The reasons which appear to explain 
this loss involve a faulty distribution of soil, poor ad- 
ministration of justice as regards the new colonists, 
and especially the difficulties immigrants have experi- 
enced in securing individual and desirable holdings that 
would attach them to their land and enable them to 
build homes in their adopted country. The operations 
connected with the purchase of land have been sub- 
jected to long and wearisome formalities which have 
exhausted both the purse and the patience of newcom- 
ers. Unwise laws promulgated formerly have enabled 
the rich absentee landlords to hold enormous tracts 
of property, and the immigrant has found it difficult 
to get land that seemed to him most desirable. To- 
day, therefore, Argentina faces the serious problem 
of a division @f lands or a continuance of temporary 
immigration. 

Here is a country capable of supporting 100,000,000 
people instead of the present 7,000,000 with vast pub- 
lic lands still undistributed. In a republic where the 
colonisation problem is the immigration problem, this 
matter is a momentous one. Argentina is a paradise 
for immigrants with its softness of climate, richness 
of soil, its extent of arable territory, inland water- 
ways, its easy commercial access to markets and potep- 



THE ARGENTINES 239 

tial wealth. It is still, outside of its abnormal capital 
with its trail of overdone luxury and materiality, a 
desert-nation. One rides for hundreds of miles over 
the level pampas in almost primeval isolation where 
the broad prairies are as bare of signs of civilisation 
as Buenos Aires is redolent with the 'atmosphere of 
gorgeous modernity. Santa Cruz, for example, with its 
58,590 square miles of land, capable of supporting a 
vast industrial and maritime population, contains 
scarcely more than 2000 persons. The call of the land 
in this remarkable republic is pathetic. 

That the country is beginning to awake to its delin- 
quency and possibility is revealed in the following 
statement taken from the "Notes on the Land Laws" 
of M. Eleodore Lobos, who, speaking of the need of 
colonisation by immigration, says : 

"Our failure is an incontestable fact and must be at- 
tributed not only to economic, administrative and 
political conditions, but also to the freedom with 
which the soil has been divided into lots of enormous 
area, and the obstacles opposed to the easy and secure 
acquisition of small properties. 

"In other terms," he continued, "our politicians have 
affected the very reverse of a rational colonisation, and 
have established a system of large properties instead 
of subdividing the land between the colonists accord- 
ing to their productive capacities." 

Argentina in her land troubles is reaping the sowing 
of a bad start, and like many another South American 
republic, she finds it difficult to dissolve the hard metal 
of the early racial consciousness dug in the old Spanish 
world, in her new modern melting pot. Traditions and 



240 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

standards closed down upon wrong ideals here in these 
lands where the founders came first to exploit and 
not to colonise. 

The new type of conqueror now invading Argentina 
is in many cases from the same lands whence came 
the early adventurers, but he comes to-day with differ- 
ent motives. He wants to get his gold by industry 
and not by theft. He seeks a land of opportunity 
for work and not for play. He seeks the simple and 
unostentatious life of the country, close to the land. 
Argentina's future land of promise lies not in the blaz- 
ing lights of her cosmopolitan Avenida de Mayo, but 
in the bone and sinew of these latest conquerors who 
ask only the worker's meed. 

Although Argentina is a new country, there are 
already certain bodies which have come to assume 
the air of fixed institutions. They are like the Statue 
of Liberty, or the Taj Mahal, or London Tower — 
things that act as departure places for travellers, and 
the person who visits the countries containing these 
famous guide-posts and cannot afterwards speak know- 
ingly concerning them, is at once branded as an in- 
expert traveller. 

In Argentina there are several such notable insti- 
tutions. There is the Colon Theatre, where the wealth 
of the metropolis disports itself and pays huge prices 
to attract the most highly prized artists of song and 
the art histrionic. The far-famed Jockey Club of 
Buenos Aires — that super-gorgeous meeting place of 
the new-rich men, where the owners of great "estancias" 
pay thousands of dollars to enter, as members. — must be 
on the visitor's programme. Another really national 



THE ARGENTINES 241 

institution is the newspaper, La Prensa, of which every 
Argentine is quite justly proud, one of the newspapers 
of South America, nearly a half century old, and com- 
bining journalism with a sort of artistic and philan- 
thropic paternalism. 

To 'be sure La Prensa cannot claim precedence in 
age among the journals of the republics south of 
Panama. The Standard, an English newspaper of 
Buenos Aires, claims a considerable priority as far 
as age is concerned, while the devoted admirers of 
El Mecurio in Chile will tell you that with the exception 
possibly of a small Brazilian sheet, their paper was the 
first one organised among these republics. 

La Prensa, furthermore, is by no means the only 
journal in Argentina. The country boasts of at least 
189 daily newspapers and periodicals printed in Buenos 
Aires alone, 157 being in Spanish, 14 in Italian, 2 in 
French, 8 in German and 6 in English. Many of the 
discerning will inform one that La Nacion, the news- 
paper of the Argentine Capital — devoting itself par- 
ticularly to authentic political news — is not only more 
dignified but also more reliable; while the clever 
El Diario, La Razon, and half a dozen other papers 
that the newsboys shriek into your ears on the tram 
cars and through the restaurants, are sheets worthy of 
any of our modern cities. 

The news-stands of the cities and towns in this pro- 
gressive land are also filled with many illustrated jour- 
nals, a number of these having a corresponding Eng- 
lish edition published in the United States. One does 
not live long in this, part of the world without discov- 
ering that the Latin American is as facile with his pen 



242 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

as with his vocal organs, and in the amount of literary 
and journalistic output of the present day Argentina 
is c(uite amazing. It must be added also that to the 
American journalist much of the South American 
journalism would seem to be superfluous, so indirect 
and generous are the writers in presenting their facts 
and opinions. If it is true that there are at least half 
a dozen ways for the Spanish American to say the 
same thing, it is equally patent that there are quite as 
many methods of writing the same thing, and the aver- 
age writer seems inclined to use them all. 

La Prensa, however, easily holds the throne of pres- 
tige and general popularity among the newspapers, if 
the circulation lists and elaborate office equipment are 
signs of press royalty. 

This journal occupies a building which is purported 
to cost, with its land and equipment, more than five mil- 
lion dollars, and the "newspaper office" would impress 
the American as a cross between a State Capitol, a Car- 
negie Library, a Metropolitan Museum and the Bos- 
ton Conservatory of Music, This is the chief first 
impression of the visitor who learns later that inci- 
dentally in this luxurious, eleemosynary atmosphere is 
published a newspaper in Spanish, twenty-three pages 
in extent, with two daily editions, and boasting of a 
certified circulation of 220,000 copies each day of the 
year. 

Here is a type of dignified journalism par excellence. 
There are no glaring bill-boards, no coloured supple- 
ments, no letters a foot high on the first page to delude 
the trusting public for the Benefit of the newsboys. In- 
stead there is a small electrically framed newsboard 



THE ARGENTINES 243 

at night, not more than two feet square, speaking in 
authoritative Castilian of such momentous facts as, 
for example, that Roumania and Italy have declared 
war on Germany. 

The offices of this paper are all upon the de luxe 
plan. An average reporter in the "States" who found 
himself installed in one of these beautifully furnished 
rooms, equipped with mahogany desks and with floors 
laid in marble mosaic, velvet curtains at the windows 
and cherubs flying over him in the frescoed ceilings, 
would be inclined to lose his American "punch." He 
would quite likely feel more like taking off his hat and 
speaking in a whisper, as one suddenly translated into 
the midst of royal surroundings. La Prensa, however, 
is really not a cathedral nor a throne room, although 
it has marble enough in it to make for a king a palace. 
It is, for a fact, a marvellous newspaper building, 
owned by a single Argentine family whose name is 
Paz, with real Hoe presses and foundry, hidden away 
in the basement, and twenty-one linotype machines that 
make all the noise expected of such instruments in 
working hours. 

We had the privilege of an introduction to one of 
the members of this family, renowned in Argentine 
journalism, a gentleman of rare manners and travelled 
culture, who gave us the impression that the chief busi- 
ness of his life was to be of service to such investi- 
gating visitors as ourselves. We discovered later that 
this gentleman was by no means an idle rich man, but 
a very assiduous newspaper expert who knew how to 
wield the blue pencil quite as dexterously as the aver- 
age city editor in the United States. From his cour- 



244 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

tesy and equanimity you would scarcely have dreamed 
that the days held aught for him other than the charm- 
ing leisurely conversation of a man at a social club. 
Such is the subtle mystery of Spanish etiquette. 

A tour through this ingeniously arranged building, 
built on the plan of the old Spanish house with a beau- 
tiful open patio in the centre, is quite an unforgettable 
experience. One is shown through the large and well- 
equipped free library, where enquiring students may 
read and write. A music school is also included where 
220 pupils get musical education gratis. There is a 
Concert Hall, with Gobelin tapestry on the walls, and 
paintings of renowned artists upon the ceiling; here 
the official staff and invited guests sit in gilt chairs, 
gorgeously upholstered in rose-coloured satin, to hear 
the operatic stars sing portions of their librettos in 
advance, to show La Prensa that they are worthy of 
that institution's support and vivas. To this rostrum 
also come distinguished lecturers who, as they look 
down upon the faultlessly dressed men and women of 
Argentina, are united in their verdict that there are 
few, if any, more luxuriously appointed private theatres 
in existence. 

The visitor is led from the fourth floor of the build- 
ing by a spiral staircase to the roof, where he looks 
off over this freshly-made metropolis, just learning 
the skyscraper habit, and is then plunged down one 
of the four electric elevators to inspect the private 
power plant, and the newspaper machinery, much of 
which is made in the United States. It takes liter- 
ally hours to thoroughly inspect the many features 
of this ingenious building, and in every room one 



THE ARGENTINES M5 

receives the same impression, namely, the lavish 
prodigality of wealth to make these offices the apex 
of luxurious equipment. From its mosaic floors, its 
walls panelled with rare carved woods, its frescoed 
ceilings, its embroidered velvet draperies, its ornate 
chandeliers (some of elaborately wrought bronze and 
others of crystal), its statuary and paintings, one dis- 
covers a characteristic of the Argentine — ostentatious 
display. 

Through it all, however, there is a very real line 
of utility. In the modern telegraph and wireless op* 
erating rooms, in the department of photography, and 
in the up-to-date grill room for the reporters, one reads 
the indication of modernity. Although the offices of 
the chief editors resemble more nearly a string of 
apartments in a President's palace, the air of effi- 
ciency is not absent, and when the accountant tells 
the visitor that La Prensa pays annually for customs 
duties, government taxes, municipal contributions, and 
for paper, ink and other supplies an average of $240,- 
000 gold, he realises that this is a business as well as 
an art institution. One is also told that the telegraph 
service costs La Prensa $20,000 each month, and that 
the paper pays its correspondents and agents $33,000 
yearly. Every month there are 80,000 small adver- 
tisements published, and the advertising manager, who 
has for many years been at the head of this depart- 
ment, is a fitting example of the practicable possi- 
bilities wrapt up in the romantic Latin American. 

In the midst of its many practical newspaper ac- 
tivities, La Prensa finds time to be of real service to 
the public in many unique ways. The paper conducts 



246 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

a law department, where three lawyers serve the pub- 
lic free of charge, daily; there is also a medical sec- 
tion, where four physicians deal out free medical ad- 
vice to all who apply. There are also conference 
rooms, richly appointed, where any group of persons 
may hold a meeting at any hour of the day or night, 
when it suits them to leave their street discussions 
and retire to the comfortable environment of a hall 
provided for such purposes. 

A meteorological observatory, where weather re- 
ports are made, has not been forgotten, while there are 
departments for distinguished visitors who are enter- 
tained by La Prensa without money and without price. 
Prizes are given by the newspaper for altruistic acts 
consisting of artistic gold medals and a subscription to 
La Prensa for a stated period or for life. To stimu- 
late education, La Prensa offers a permanent prize of 
$1,500, which is annually awarded to the person who 
has taught the greatest number of illiterate people to 
read the national language within the boundaries of 
the Republic, during the preceding year. There are 
also literary contests held, money prizes being given 
for the best articles and stories written, and an in- 
formation bureau is carried on for the benefit of the 
public. The interest in Argentine land is not omitted 
by La Prensa, in whose offices there is found an indus- 
trial and agricultural bureau; this department of free 
service has contributed considerable benefit both to the 
agriculturist and also to the business community. 

One of the most striking advertisements of La 
Prensa, which is not without its public utility, consists 
in the method of conveying news of extraordinary 



THE ARGENTINES 247 

events through a powerful syren whistle which can be 
heard to the utmost limits of the city and suburbs. 
During the progress of the European war, the news 
is conveyed by a system of signals, flags by day and elec- 
tric lights on the top of the edifice by night. 

From every point of inspection one is certain to be 
impressed with this unusual exhibition of enterprise in 
modern journalism. Its cosmopolitan presentation of 
news, its virtually unbiassed attitude in relation to poli- 
tics, its conservatism and dignity in conveying the news 
to the public, and in its unexampled expenditure of at- 
tention to the welfare of the nation, La Prensa is one 
of the most worthy examples of the progressive genius 
of this South American republic. 



CHAPTER XVI 

BUENOS AIRES, THE CITY DE LUXE 

It looks gold, it smells of gold, . . . Yea, the very waves as 
they ripple past us, sing of gold, gold, gold. 

Charles Kingsley. 

THESE words of Charles Kingsley were not in- 
tended to be used in connection with Buenos 
Aires, but they came to our mind as we alighted 
from the Trans-Andean train one recent autumn eve- 
ning and were whirled to the hotel through the 
brilliant streets of the Argentine capital. For sev- 
eral months we had been wandering through the 
ancient mediaeval-like towns and cities of the western 
coast of South America. To a traveller thus inured to 
scenes where modernity struggles painfully with dilapi- 
dation and decay, the new and dazzling Buenos Aires, 
with its stretches of shining macadam along Parisian- 
like boulevards, its regal mansions and its general air 
of twentieth century de luxe, is like a gorgeous electric- 
lighted room after semi-darkness. 

Buenos Aires is, indeed, a startling city; it might be 
called "The City of Amazement." This unanalysed 
wonder of the traveller is likely to continue for sev- 
eral days, as he is piloted, perhaps, through the rich 
and gorgeous rooms of the aristocratic Jockey Club, 

248 



BUENOS AIRES, THE CITY DE LUXE 249 

the income of which organisation amounts to millions 
of dollars a year by reason of its connection with one 
of the finest race tracks of the world, or, should he be 
fortunate enough, as he sits as guest in the drawing- 
room of an "estancia" prince. One's first days in this 
city of the River Plate are a kind of orgy of resplend- 
ent vision as he passes through a phantaismagoria 
of varied riches. There is the Colon Theatre, said to 
be more expensive and beautiful than any of its Eu- 
ropean rivals, with its onyx and rose and gold. Even 
the ornate marble and granite cemetery, where Buenos 
Aires buries above ground its dead, speaks of a land 
flowing in wealth. 

As one gets away from his early sight-seeing trip, 
he is almost inclined to believe that this magnificence, 
which momentarily warps one's judgment, was a pre- 
conceived plan on the part of these progressive and 
vigorous folk whose first ideal seems to be Progress — 
Progress beneath the aegis of the gods of gold. It is 
also extremely different from the West Coast cities — 
so extravagantly costly — so supergorgeous — so Baby- 
lonian-like. One is not surprised that a certain Eng- 
lish author chose as the title of his book, "The Amaz~ 
ing Argentina." 

This element of marvel seems to highly please the 
inhabitant. They like to see the traveller amazed. 
Furthermore, they outdo the wonder of their build, 
ings in the narration of statistics concerning their city, 
which figures are hurled from all sides on one's un- 
suspecting head. The visitor will be told almost in 
one sweep of breath that Buenos Aires, the Queen of 
the South Atlantic, has a population of 1,700,000, and 



250 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

is not only the largest city in South America, but the 
second largest Latin city in the world. One will hear 
how the area of the Argentine metropolis is eighty- 
two square miles, and thus larger than Paris, Berlin, 
Hamburg or Vienna; that it is one of the most, if not 
the most, cosmopolitan city on the face of the globe; 
and that its subway, the most luxurious and best in 
existence, carries 400,000,000 passengers each year. 
But this is only a beginning of the history of this new 
town whose story reads like a tale of the "One Thou- 
sand and One Nights." It possesses, as you learn, 500 
periodicals, 4,000 private motor cars, one of the big- 
gest banks in the world, the most luxurious club- 
house, 97 of the most modern and beautiful parks, 
34 public markets, 435 miles of car tracks, and 
withal more millionaires according to population than 
New York City or any other metropolis that one might 
happen to suggest. It is small wonder that after the 
first few days in the Capital city of the great cattle 
republic, the traveller feels that some one has been 
handling Aladdin's lamp, and his first inclination is to 
get away from all the splendour to some quiet nook 
in order to get his perspective and reason out this 
mighty piece of modernity. 

When the enthusiastic and loyal Porteno has got 
these facts and a hundred others out of his system, he 
will turn, as a rule, dramatically towards you and say, 
"Now, what do you think of our city?" He likes to 
see you gasp for adjectives with which to endeavour 
vainly to express your wonder at all this material im- 
mensity. Then he leads you off to see some great public 
buildings with marble steps and mosaic floors, with 



BUENOS AIRES, THE CITY DE LUXE 251 

statues, bronzes and paintings, of which he tells you the 
price but does not give you time to admire their beauty; 
for there are other things even more remarkable to 
see, like the richly appointed shops on the Calle Flor- 
ida, and the more richly gowned people along this 
promenade where all the world goes to stare at each 
other in the afternoon; not to speak of the newspaper 
magnate's palace on the Plaza San Martin, which you 
will be told cost more than the American White House. 

After a week or so of this paralysing business, if 
the traveller has successfully dodged the motor cars 
and vehicles driven at breakneck speed by the Argen- 
tine Jehus, and escaped with life and limb from being 
run down by street cars on the narrow business streets, 
where the trams come perilously near taking the side- 
walk, the visitor gets a bit hardened to architectural 
magnificence and stunning statistics and begins to try 
a bit of visualisation and analysing on his own account. 

The reaction from all this blaze of impression be- 
comes so sudden and intense with some that they go to 
the extreme of saying that Buenos Aires is, indeed, 
in a class by itself, but on this statement they do not 
intend to be especially complimentary. Some will utter 
the conviction that this new city, being without aris- 
tocracy of birth, has proceeded to form an aristocracy 
of extravagant display of wealth, that it is, in fact, a 
city of frenzied finance. Others have called it a city 
of sham — stucco houses made to look like marble, 
ostentation to cover a poverty of ideas, a neurotic 
Orientalism wearing the garb of culture and mediaeval 
chivalry to womankind, or — speaking of the Portenos 
as children — playing house at being Paris, but affect- 



252 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

ing only a "plaster imitation," lacking the spontaneous 
gaiety and ability of the Parisian. 

But such extreme and harsh detractors would secure 
a very small audience of sympathisers from those 
who have stayed long enough in Buenos Aires to out- 
live their reactions. The foreigner who makes a tem- 
porary visit, especially if he does not understand Span- 
ish, and is obliged to receive his information in a 
roundabout way through interpreters, or sit through 
theatres or public gatherings whose significance he can 
only guess, is quite sure to come away with a feeling 
that all this playing up of externals is a kind of in- 
genious method of showing off. He must remain 
longer and get below and beyond these confessedly 
specious introductions, to the heart and soul of a city 
which has sprung up almost in a night on the muddy 
flats of the River Plate, literally in a single genera- 
tion. To such a student of Buenos Aires there will 
come indubitably a consciousness of vast values both in 
the way of progress and of individual personality. 

The people, or the Portenos, as the inhabitants of 
Buenos Aires are known locally, are of primal interest 
to the student of modern civilisation. Who are the 
people of Buenos Aires? Where did they come from? 
Why are they what they are? 

Unless we begin in some such fashion the South 
American is an impregnable puzzle to the Anglo-Saxon, 
and anything like mutual understanding will be quite 
impossible. 

He who visits Buenos Aires may have already 
learned that Argentina was discovered in 151 6 by the 
Spanish navigator, Juan de Solis, who, in search of 



BUENOS AIRES, THE CITY DE LUXE 253 

a passage to the Pacific Ocean, was the first European 
to sail up the Rio de la Plata. He has doubtlessly 
learned already that in 1536 de Mendoza founded the 
city "Santa Maria de Buenos Aires," and that the 
Viceroyalty of La Plata, including Argentine, Bolivia, 
Paraguay and Uruguay of to-day, was broken in 18 10 
by the people of Buenos Aires, who declared their in- 
dependence under the leadership of the famous names 
of General San Martin, General Belgrano, and Ad- 
miral Brown; and that in i860 the country adopted the 
name by which it is now known, "La Nacion Argen- 
tina." 

It would be natural, therefore, to suppose that Bue- 
nos Aires, being of Spanish origin, would be identical 
in character and customs with other large South Amer- 
ican cities, like Santiago or Lima. This supposition 
is soon frustrated as one learns that one-fifth of the 
inhabitants of Buenos Aires are Italian and at least 
half the population are foreign born, and that while 
according to very recent calculation it is reported that 
Chile has one per cent of foreign population, the re- 
public of which Buenos Aires is the capital possesses 
85 per cent of inhabitants who either came themselves 
from alien lands, or whose immediate ancestry was 
foreign. It will also be found that some of the largest 
enterprises of the Capital city are in the hands of 
British, Germans and Americans. Great Britain alone 
has invested $1,250,000,000 in Argentina and has put 
700,000,000 of these dollars in railroads, which she 
controls largely by her representatives linked with their 
offices in London. 

It is also an illuminating discovery that the people 



254 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

who dwell in these wonderfully rich homes on the 
Avenida General Alvear (and there are few cities 
anywhere in the world where the motive of beauty is 
more prominent in palatial and luxurious houses) are 
the old Argentine families who own estancias. These 
people have made their money, not through industrial 
enterprise, as is the case so often in the United States, 
but by reason of the fact that a generation ago they 
were enabled by what would seem to be a short-sighted 
government to buy land at three cents an acre, and 
have since seen their rich farms increase in value a 
thousandfold and more. 

Argentina has not been favoured with the "home- 
stead" system. Pedro Luro, a Basque immigrant, will 
be pointed out as an example of what has happened. 
He received a hundred square leagues, or 625,000 
acres of good soil, when the government was glad to 
dispose of it at three and one-half cents an acre. He 
secured fifty Basque families to assist him with his 
grant, and several millionaires resulted; the land is 
valued to-day at five hundred times what Luro paid 
for it. This immigrant, who landed at seventeen years 
of age in the year 1837 at Buenos Aires, having only 
a few shillings in his pocket, died a short time ago 
owning a million acres of land in addition to half a 
million sheep and one hundred and fifty thousand cattle. 

With this advantage in land, it was comparatively 
easy for these Argentine pioneers to sit in their homes 
and see railroads and harbour improvements arrive 
under the impulse of foreign capital; watch the floods 
of immigration, adding to the country's importance in 
agriculture as well as in cattle, exchanging meanwhile 



BUENOS AIRES, THE CITY DE LUXE 255 

their primitive tools for modern steam-driven farm 
machinery, assuring the material prosperity of them- 
selves and their posterity for generations to come. In 
a country where political influence and military record 
were so closely allied to the obtaining of land at trifling 
cost, one can readily see how the pernicious "latifun- 
dia" system fastened itself upon the republic. Al- 
though the mistakes of these early years have since 
been recognised and partially rectified, the results are 
still manifest in the abnormalities of this Buenos Aires 
de luxe, which has been significantly styled u a pre- 
tentious Capital in a pastoral republic." 

One is still amazed to find that these great rural 
and almost feudal aristocrats of land who spend their 
wealth in the capitals of Europe when they are not liv- 
ing in their expensive Buenos Aires homes, still hold 
their lands comparatively free from taxes, while the 
poor Italian pushcart man, and the later immigrant 
who owns but fifty acres, must pay his taxes to the 
uttermost farthing. To be sure, there are laws re- 
cently made which make for equal division of property 
among the children, when the head of the house dies, 
and some of the large estates are thus broken up. Un- 
til more favourable terms of owning property can be 
arranged for the present-day immigrant, this richly 
resourceful country will lag behind its possible prog- 
ress. At present the sons of these men of wealth of the 
Capital city do not reveal a taste for industry or hard 
work. It better suits their taste and temperament to 
choose law or politics as a profession, rather than 
commerce, leaving the brunt of the burden bearing, 
and emoluments as well, of industrial and economic 



256 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

development to foreigners. They have been brought 
up in a school where men are seldom referred to as 
possessing so much a year. Income is not a subject of 
interest with the Buenos Aires plutocratic scion, but 
property and social standing are judged by capital. 

These men of wealth have rather turned their at- 
tention of late to the breeding of blooded cattle, sheep 
and hogs, which they have imported from Europe at 
fabulous prices. The stock show and breeding business 
has become a kind of mania with the estancia aristo- 
crat. Prices are paid for breeding animals quite out 
of proportion to their value. One cannot but feel that 
in spite of certain real advantages secured, the tend' 
ency at present is to make this business a fad for the 
rich and fashionable. The man who fails to get him- 
self before the public as a politician, or in any other 
way, can accomplish the feat and have this whole cattle 
country ring with his name before night by paying 
$50,000 for a prize bull. 

Besides this hobby, horse racing is by way of being 
a national institution, and the course at Palermo is a 
notable sight. All Buenos Aires turns out to attend 
these races, and the Avenida Alvear, which leads out 
to the track, on the day of a fashionable meeting, is a 
vivid motion picture, in which hired cabs and victorias 
jostle smart private carriages and speeding motor cars. 
Among the imposing array of great white stands and 
stables, the private stand and enclosure of the Jockey 
Club deserve particular mention. White marble has 
been generously used in its construction, while the ter- 
race before it is made beautiful with flowers and small 
trees, as is also the great field in the centre of the track. 



BUENOS AIRES, THE CITY DE LUXE 257 

The racing itself is said to equal its setting, and the 
Jockey Club, which controls the Palermo course, re- 
ceives from it its chief revenues. 

The Matadores is another sight which makes a 
journey to the suburbs worth one's while. Here is 
brought most of the live stock that forms such an im- 
portant source of the city's prosperity — for sale and 
for slaughter. Three or four thousand head of cattle 
are disposed of daily at the Matadores, and the place 
forms a well-sized settlement, in itself, of cattle yards, 
auction rooms, office buildings and laboratories. In 
these last a careful watch is continually kept to guard 
against possible disease among the animals, which, if 
not checked at the very outset, is likely to mean an 
enormous loss; this loss would be felt not alone in 
Argentina, but in the United States and Europe, both 
of which have come to depend more and more upon this 
source of supplies. 

No article in this city would be complete without 
mention of the Argentine women; and it must be said, 
furthermore, that the women of Buenos Aires, both 
by their beauty and feminine charm, live up to the 
artistic standard of the Capital's homes and general 
magnificence. No longer do you see the "manta" of 
Peru and Chile. These women dress in the height 
of Parisian fashion, and they wear their clothes with 
a style that one sees only on the Rue de la Paix. Lady 
Argentina is perfectly coiffed, perfectly gowned, per- 
fectly shod, and as she passes before you she is the 
acme of well-groomed womanhood, but — she lacks 
animation, she seems more like a beautiful doll. Yet 
she lives up to what is required of her by her men. 



258 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

The Portenos want their women feminine in the ex- 
treme; they want them demure and restrained, as if 
still beneath the spell of old Spain. They want them to 
be good housekeepers, devoted mothers, and they are 
both of these in a superlative degree. They also hold 
the key to religion in their hands, especially those of 
the upper classes. In activity they differ from the 
women of the United States so far as expression of 
their mental abilities is related to anything outside of 
the home, in the realm of social or public endeavour. 
Their intelligence, however, is undoubted, and many 
would contend that the Argentine woman is more than 
an equal for her husband in this regard. 

Slowly the women of Buenos Aires are breaking 
away from the Spanish exclusiveness, which has kept 
them Orientally shut away from the world. It is 
doubtful whether this beautiful type of femininity will 
join the ranks of the suffragists in this or the next gen- 
eration even, but through travel and increasing contact 
with other nationalities (she speaks, as a rule, several 
languages fluently) she will doubtless be the first 
woman in South America to join the standard of fem- 
inism which is now advancing so rapidly around the 
world. 

What kind of future awaits this city de luxe, with 
its intelligent and modern men and women, its prodi- 
gal expenditure of wealth upon municipal improve- 
ments, its educational system that will bear comparison 
with any other land, and its ever enlarging scientific 
hold upon its landed industry? 

Racially there is a purity of Caucasion blood here 
hardly to be met with elsewhere in South American 



BUENOS AIRES, THE CITY DE LUXE 259 

cities. There is, indeed, less than five per cent of non- 
Caucasian blood in Argentina, according to recent sta- 
tistics, while the United States has eleven per cent. 
With the exception of the Canadians, possibly no peo- 
ple in the Western Hemisphere are so truly European 
as these inhabitants of Buenos Aires. Northern Italy 
has been contributing in large numbers her firmer stock 
to the commercial life of the city and country, and in 
the expanding economic progress the Latin race seems 
here to be taking fresh hold upon life and opportunity. 
Activity and growth are the words belonging to the 
new Buenos Aires. "One day," said a Porteno, "our 
city will be the Capital of 100,000,000 people, whom 
our wide plains can easily support." 

With a government growing more and more stable, 
a trade with outside nations becoming increasingly ex- 
tensive, and with the possession of a boundless faith in 
itself, Argentina, like the United States, is a land of 
to-morrow. Like her northern neighbour, also, she 
has her foes lying in wait for her in the form of plu- 
tocracy and the dead level resulting from irreligion. 
It is not in material magnificence that this fair city of 
La Plata will fail, but more likely by reason of her 
failure to cultivate the unseen but no less real life of 
the spirit. Like many another New World city, filled 
with utilitarian gods, Buenos Aires, especially in her 
ruling classes, needs to invite to her aid Ruskin's three 
guardian angels — Conduct, Toil and Thought. 

A professor in the University of Buenos Aires said 
to me: 

"My great life aim is to rid my country of two of 
her arch foes, socialism and religion." 



260 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

It is conceivable that Buenos Aires and the country 
over which she is the beautiful presiding mistress, 
might with profit change the form and even the spirit 
of her faith, but that she should abandon religion al- 
together would seem impossible of belief. Repeatedly- 
one hears from her most serious citizens the statement 
that Buenos Aires at present needs men of character 
and power of will. When this City of the South be- 
comes truly convinced of this, she will have little to 
fear as to her future destiny. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE SOUTH AMERICAN COWBOY 

Cattle and the hose have determined the habits of the Ar- 
gentine and the Uruguayan. — Lord Bryce. 

THE inhabitant of the United States who visits 
the pampa sections of Argentina, Uruguay and 
Brazil, is reminded repeatedly of the history of the 
plainsman's life in his own country. To be sure the 
days of the Wyoming and Texas cowboy, together 
with the menace of the Western Indian, have passed in 
North America, and these adventurous and reckless 
frontiersmen are now met only in books or in the tales 
of the older inhabitants. Yet there is something fasci- 
nating and attractive in the audacity, the frankness and 
the ostentatious display of these men of the West who 
were always associated with their horses, cattle, and 
hair-breadth escapes. Even to-day the "Wild West 
Show" forms one of our attractive annual events. 

The romance of these cowboy days of the United 
States finds its reflection in the gauchos of South Amer- 
ica. Indeed, the Argentines fifty years ago were for 
the most part men of this class, and the bravery and 
daring of these men as fighters with their open-air, 
active and lawless ways marks an interesting epoch 
in the history of this republic. 

26 1 



262 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

The railroads, the harbingers of enlightened prog- 
ress but the destroyers of primitive romance, began 
half a century ago to pierce their paths through the 
leagues of pasturage surrounding Buenos Aires, where 
flocks and herds wandered then to suit their fancy on 
the unfenced prairies. The railroads were a greater 
menace to the lawless frontiersmen than were the In- 
dians whom they fought so persistently. These roads 
reached beyond the cultivated camps to those interior 
regions where the moving tents of the South American 
Indian receded before the iron march of civilisation. 
These were not the Cuzco Indians, industrious, and giv- 
ing themselves peacefully to a settled life, but the wild 
tribes to whom the white man's regime was as much 
a mystery as a menace. Their only safety was in 
flight, fighting as they went, to more desolate regions. 

In the wake of the Indian came his rival, the gaucho. 
This picturesque individual has been intimately asso- 
ciated with the ruling industry of Argentina, the cattle 
business, and the story of his life always connected 
with his horse, his lariat, his games, his poetry, and 
his fierce scouting expeditions on the broad plains, 
casts about one the spell of bygone days. 

At present a progressive modern civilisation seems 
to be getting too strong for him, and in Argentina, 
especially, he is being pressed back farther and farther 
into the remote wastes of the pampa, driven before a 
machine-made culture which he can hardly understand. 
Many indeed have left the plains to become policemen 
in the cities or cuirassed members of the President's 
guard. Still, in such sections as the Province of San- 
tiago del Estero, and then farther west and north, 



THE SOUTH AMERICAN COWBOY 263 

where the breath of the modern city is rarely felt, you 
will still find the gaucho, a potent factor in the rural 
life. 

Here this pioneer of other days possesses the chief 
characteristics which have always associated him with 
a magic and imaginative existence. His eyes are dark 
and dreamy and flashing often with anger; his skin 
is bronzed with the sun ; his hair is worn long often and 
sometimes it is plaited; he is always associated with 
his mate, the aromatic beverage prepared from the 
leaves of the mate tree, and roasted beef, as our 
American cowboy depended upon his beans and coffee. 
He always carries the long knife which he uses at his 
table d'hote, and as a weapon of offence and defence in 
place of a revolver. He reminds you somewhat of the 
old Cossack of Southern Russia; few horsemen surpass 
him in his ability to ride. His dress is in some respects 
similar to that of the Indian, consisting of a poncho, 
which is a square piece of cloth with a hole cut for the 
head to pass through, and the trousers, among the Ar- 
gentine gauchos, tight-fitting, and often covered with 
"chaps." The ponchos often resemble in variegated 
colouring, the Navajo Indian blankets, and when a 
crowd of gauchos come together for their games or 
festivals, the colour picture is a striking one. The gau- 
cho is devoted also to his sheepskin saddle, which he 
uses at night on the pampa as a pillow, while his pon- 
cho serves as a blanket. Many of these saddles are 
inlaid with silver and cost a small fortune; they are 
also the causes of many personal feuds among the 
plainsmen. 

The lasso, which the gaucho uses as his chief weapon 



264 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

against both cattle and men, has a ball attached to the 
end of it, sometimes of metal and often of stone. It 
is so hurled that it coils itself around the legs of the 
victim. These, however, are not so commonly in use 
as in former days, but the lariat is seen usually coiled 
at the cowboy's saddle bow. 

Racially the gaucho is of mixed element. The 
Spanish adventurer and Indian maternal ancestry are 
mixed with the romance and the mystery of the Moor 
who figured so potently in the old brilliant Arabic days 
in Spain. Mr. W. H. Koebel, an English writer, 
speaking of the gaucho, says : 

"There is a certain poetry and picturesqueness about 
the race, as about the Moors of Castile, which almost 
makes one regret to see pass away a fellow who will 
sleep on his saddle at your doorsill, like a faithful dog; 
who endures heat or cold, hunger and thirst without ut- 
tering a complaint, who rides five hundred miles on end 
at your bidding, sleeping in the open air, providing his 
food with the lasso and disposing of it by the simple 
appliances of his knife, flint and steel, with bones or 
dried reeds as fuel; who would take cows or horses 
of any one but his patron; who, perhaps, might knock 
a man off his horse and cut his throat for his spurs 
and stirrups, if so it took his fancy, but who, in his 
patron's service, could with perfect confidence be 
trusted with hundreds of pounds to go as many leagues 
to purchase and bring in cattle; who moves with grace, 
speaks with courtesy, asks after all the family in de- 
tail, sends his compliments to the patrona, or com- 
pliments her if he has the opportunity; who marks on 
the ground the different brands of horses or cattle of 




THE GAUCHO AS A WANDERING MINSTREL 



ft -SV; ••'•^•■•'•.> v -SP!|J» ; 3W*hS. SL'^3»V" ,J tf S^S 



i r m^-4 





1,. Lk^'- 



A FINE GROUP OF GAUCHOS AT A COUNTRY ESTATE 



THE SOUTH AMERICAN COWBOY 265 

numerous owners, and traces stolen or strayed animals 
over thousands of leagues — such is my friend the 
gauche" 

This pioneer of the plains earned his semi-magic 
reputation, which still clings about him, by an almost un- 
canny intuition resulting from his long acquaintance 
with the open spaces of nature. One is told that these 
men can never get lost in the pampa's wide immensity, 
and that every sign like a bird call, the bruising of the 
blades of grass, or the pricking forward of the horse's 
ears, has a meaning for him. The eyes of the gaucho 
can distinguish among a galloping troop of hundreds 
of animals, we are told, the young horse which the 
year before, as a foal, had been singled out for his 
own future use. His ears are so acute that he can 
tell from the thunder of hoofs on the hard pampa, 
while the animals are still far out of sight, whether a 
stampede has been caused by threatening weather or 
by an attack of Indians. He can count the units 
which compose an approaching troop and know 
whether these are mounted and by what kind of men, 
accoutred soldiers or half-naked savages, all through 
the sensitiveness of his trained hearing. 

The gaucho belongs to the great "estancia" life of 
Argentina, and these "estancias" with their big houses, 
each with its semi-covered patio and flat roof, and 
placed in the midst of a desolation of monotonous flat- 
ness, save for the few trees that surround the house, 
form the centre about which his activities are engaged. 
A short distance from the seigniorial mansion one 
found in former days the hut-like ranches of the peons 
and shepherds, who also lived the gaucho life. 



866 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

It was to the great festivals when the dividing of 
the flocks and herds occurred that all gaucho society- 
assembled on its respective lands to eat the asado came 
con cuero, a beast roasted whole and in its hide. It is 
here that occurred the exchanges of jokes and wit of 
the keen herdsmen and horsemen, and it was here also 
that the native minstrelsy was born and practised a 
kind of a folklore that fitted the free and untrammelled 
life of these prairies. 

The guitar was and is the musical instrument of the 
gaucho, and the slow measured dance and the soft 
singing of the "payador," or minstrel, who was re- 
nowned far and wide in the pampa world was a notable 
part of these celebrations. These songs were filled 
with all the sentiment and sadness of the Spanish- 
Indian stock, and they spoke of love and danger, often 
ending a fierce combat between two rival minstrels. 

The gauchos of Argentina to-day are fond of tell- 
ing about one of these poetical tournaments which seems 
emblematical in its delineation of the present-day con- 
dition of the members of this picturesque race of men. 

Santos Viga, who is to the gaucho the Homer of 
the pampa, entered into the lists of minstrelsy against 
Juan Sinropa, who is known among the plainsmen as 
the Devil. As the story goes, Santos Viga, overcome 
by his opponent and unable to bear the disgrace of de- 
feat, mounted his horse and disappeared into the 
boundless level wastes of the Argentine prairies never 
more to return. It is said that the shepherds of the 
plains often see in fancy this ancient minstrel mounted 
on a dark steed and galloping over the pampa in the 



THE SOUTH AMERICAN COWBOY 267 

chilly moonlight, holding a loose rein on the mane of 
his mount, and bearing his guitar on his shoulder. 

It would seem less illusory to recognise in this 
pampian Mephistopheles, as one modern writer has 
done, the modern spirit of the new Argentine city, 
which has come to meet the gaucho face to face, armed 
with no primitive lariat and weapon, but equipped with 
all that modernity and industry can furnish. Even the 
bravery of the gaucho can not stand single-handed be- 
fore the march of the world's science. He has ac- 
cepted defeat and quietly withdrawn from the unequal 
contest. In another quarter of a century it will be as 
difficult to find him in Argentina as to-day it is difficult 
to find the North American frontiersman, like Daniel 
Boone, Kit Carson, and their reckless, audacious fol- 
lowers. As he passes he will leave a chapter of in- 
teresting frontier history for future generations, and in 
his nature he will furnish a mirror in which is reflected 
clearly some of the outstanding characteristics domi- 
nating the primitive stock from which the modern de- 
scendants of the progressive South American republic 
have sprung. 

The Uruguayan gaucho resembles his neighbour in 
Argentina and Brazil, especially in his love for 
blooded horses, his audacity and the power of endur- 
ance stimulated by his ever present mate. His fighting 
instincts have been more fully developed, for it was 
men of this class who fought under the leadership of 
Artigas, the hero of Uruguay, for the independence of 
this republic. These plainsmen have been in many 
bloody encounters with neighbouring States, and their 



268 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

patriotism and sense of honour and hospitality are un- 
questioned. 

As one travels northward the gaucho type becomes 
finer, and in South Brazil he is hardly distinguishable 
at times from the landowner and the big fazenda pro- 
prietor, who often assume the poncho, sombrero, and 
the baggy trousers (bombachas) of the Brazilian cow- 
boy. The inhabitants of the Brazilian State of Rio 
Grande do Sul are fond of calling their State terra 
gaucha — the land of the gauchos. Here the cowboy 
is coming into his own as the great section is beginning 
anew its modern industry of freezing meat, and breed- 
ing cattle, sheep, and horses on an enormous scale. He 
is still the dashing, picturesque figure which one sees in 
the countries farther south, though not afraid of civi- 
lisation, and destined to become an important factor 
in the development of the huge cattle-lands of Matto 
Grosso, Minas Geraes and Rio Grande do Sul. His 
food is the Brazilian xarque — dried beef — the mate of 
Parana, black beans and mandioca. The cattlemen are 
called sometimes "vaqueros" in Brazil. Their future 
is filled with promise, and South Brazil with its rolling 
plains : their paradise. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

URUGUAY AND URUGUAYANS 

THE visitor to the Republic of Uruguay is quite 
likely to ask among his first questions why this 
small but progressive state is known as the "Oriental 
Republic." He will be told that it was simply be- 
cause Uruguay represented the eastern section of Ar- 
gentina before the two republics were separated. That, 
however, the republic of one and one-half million in- 
habitants which established its freedom and indepen- 
dence in 1830, and prides itself upon many unique and 
individual enterprises, possesses any more" of the traits 
Oriental than any other South American republic is 
not readily discerned. Uruguay, on the other hand, 
especially in the construction of its constitution and in 
the promotion of its government, reminds one often 
of the United States, from which country this "graz- 
ing" land has taken many of its principles. 

A foreign gentleman in the city of Buenos Aires 
told me upon my departure for Montevideo that Uru- 
guay was simply looking through the small end of the 
telescope, as compared with Argentina, that, in fact, 
this small republic, which depends almost entirely upon 
its cattle and sheep for its sustenance, was considerably 
an imitator of its larger and nearest neighbour. My 
own study gave me a somewhat different conception. I 

269 



270 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

found here a republic keenly alive to originating laws 
and conditions directly adaptable to its own popula- 
tion. One finds peculiar laws relating to the labouring 
man, such as the one making it possible for the work- 
man to toil not more than eight hours daily for six 
days in the week, and carrying this injunction to the 
extent that no man shall labour more than forty-eight 
hours a week. The labourer is allowed to work more 
than eight hours in a single day, but the sum total of 
his weekly toil must be kept within the forty-eight 
hours, assuring a rest day. As a Uruguayan expressed 
it, "We believe in a rhythmic round of toil which 
makes it possible to have five-sixths of the population 
working every day in the week, and one-sixth resting." 

I found the independence of this nation asserting 
itself in the new improvement works relative to the 
docks at which the numerous vessels discharge their 
cargo. Because of the lack of wharfage it has been 
customary for boats to discharge their cargos by 
means of lighters, and the lighterage company for 
many years has been doing a large and lucrative busi- 
ness with a four million dollar investment in this ex- 
cellent port. The Government with one brave stroke 
has spent recently twenty-five million dollars for the 
construction of new dockage which will accommodate 
fifteen vessels at one time. A severe fight was brought 
on thereby with the lighterage company, and the con- 
test was carried as far as London, a kind of boycott 
being installed against this port for a time with the 
hope that the Government would yield to the powerful 
arguments of the rich lighterage company. 

During my interview with Dr. Viera, the republic's 



URUGUAY AND URUGUAYANS 271 

President, I learned of a unique arrangement in this 
country by which a student can pass from the kinder- 
garten stage to the last moment of graduate work in 
the best technical school or university, without paying 
one penny for his tuition, — text-books even being pro- 
vided by the State. On this question of education 
President Viera revealed much enthusiasm, being justly 
proud of the nation's schools for adults founded in 
1907 and placed under the public school administra- 
tion, also gratuitous and open both day and night, the 
school for backward children, and the school for the 
professional training of working girls, directed by 
teachers educated for the purpose in Europe and 
North America. The national school of arts and 
trades is carried on directly in line with the national 
industries; there is also the department of secondary 
and preparatory instruction exclusively for women (all 
of the professors are women) ; there is, too, the de- 
partmental lyceum in the eighteen departments of the 
republic, including the special public lecturer, serving 
a public lecture plan similar to that in connection with 
the public schools in the "States," in addition to the 
regular educational features. Our attention was also 
called to the national orchestra, consisting of sixty mu- 
sicians who during the months of April and May, 
give daily concerts in one of the principal theatres 
of the Capital, and in addition visit cities of the interior 
for concert work. The original value of this orchestra 
is aimed at the development of creative activity on the 
part of national composers, whose works are especially 
used by these musicians. An experimental school of 
dramatic art, founded by the Italian actress, Jacinta 



272 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Pezzana, renders four performances a week, each of 
which is free, the expenses being borne entirely by the 
State. 

There are other things interesting to the foreigner 
concerning the President of the Republic of Uruguay 
in addition to his loyalty to education. 

One's first impression of this gentleman is to the 
effect that he is one of the stoutest gentlemen one has 
ever seen in his life. In fact, he is often compared 
with Ex-President Taft in this regard, though we doubt 
much whether Professor Taft, even before his success- 
ful activities in reduction, equalled President Viera's 
physical proportions. 

Since it is a law in Uruguay that the Chief Executive 
of the Republic cannot succeed himself without an 
intervening four years, the visitor will be told that the 
former President of Rooseveltian energy and tenden- 
cies, Jose Battley Ordonez, searched among his friends 
for a man sufficiently adaptable to carry out his plans 
and hold his seat until he could again be elected as 
President. In Dr. Viera he fixed upon a man who 
proved capable, not only of fully occupying the large 
chair of state in the Government palace, but who also 
has shown signs of individual independence which it is 
said is not altogether pleasing to the former Executive. 
Dr. Viera's present popularity with the people has led 
those politicians who seemed to desire him simply as 
a figurehead, to become somewhat nervous. During 
my visit to Montevideo I was invited to attend in one 
of the large theatres a meeting of appreciation ar- 
ranged in honour of the President, at which hundreds 
of Uruguayans gathered to hear speeches and unite in 



URUGUAY AND URUGUAYANS 273 

vast applause on behalf of the republic's present 
leader. 

The discrimination of Dr. Viera came out when I 
asked concerning his attitude towards immigration and 
the labour problems of his country. 

"To be sure we want immigration here, but we want 
additional population of the right kind. Uruguay does 
not possess facilities and resources for manufacturing 
because of her lack of coal, wood and iron. The 
republic has on the other hand tremendous resources 
for the raising of live stock and also for agricultural 
development. It is necessary to have our recruits 
chosen with a view to the kind of work which the na- 
tion needs. We do not require the vast influx of labour- 
ing population which Argentina and the United States, 
for example, have been receiving, since the time is not 
ripe for them, and furthermore they would find little 
congenial to their abilities in Uruguay." 

As I had been impressed with the lack of horses or 
horse raising in Uruguay, which we had somehow con- 
nected with this republic, I inquired as to why Uru- 
guay did not devote herself to the horse-raising in- 
dustry. It was brought out in reply that in the time of 
revolutions, of which Uruguay had had her share in 
former days, but which were now things of the past, 
the revolutionists who were successful had a disagree- 
able habit of seizing the horses as a legitimate prey, 
which was naturally a discouragement to the farmer 
along this line of industry. 

A somewhat unique feature of government is 
brought to the attention of the investigator in Uru- 
guay in the Collegiate Presidency. This plan, which 



J 



274 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

was strongly promulgated by Dr. Viera's predecessor^ 
called for seven presidents instead of one. 

"What," I inquired, "was the advantage which was 
expected to accrue from such an arrangement?" 

"The idea was to prevent the usurpation of power 
by one man whose views and procedure were practic- 
ally unknown to the electorate previous to his occupa- 
tion of the Presidency. For example, the present 
President of Argentina is somewhat of an experiment, 
the people hardly knowing just what is going to hap- 
pen when the untried man of a new party comes into 
power. This creates an uncertainty in business, and it 
is thought that if several men had the executive leader- 
ship of the country, the plan would make for stability 
"and national certainty." 

The first consideration of such a plan impresses one 
with considerable doubt as to any gain accruing to a 
republic in the way of unity or certainty by having 
seven men trying to run things rather than one, and the 
generally accepted belief that Dr. Viera is a far less 
firm adherent to this policy than was his predecessor 
increases one's confidence in his judgment. 

I was interested furthermore to ask the President 
the question which I placed before other Chief Ex- 
ecutives and business men of these South American 
states • 

"Wh, ) is your opinion concerning trade with the 
United States? Will the present business which the 
Uruguayans are carrying on with America, largely be- 
cause it is impossible at present to trade with Europe, 
continue after the war?" 

"We like the Americans," responded the President, 



URUGUAY AND URUGUAYANS 275 

"and we should like to trade with you, but the tradi- 
tions and customs of doing business here are similar to 
those in other South American republics, and the man- 
ufacturers of the United States do not seem to under- 
stand these conditions, or at least they have not shown 
signs of adapting themselves to our modes of buying 
and receiving goods from abroad. There are many 
complaints at present from our people regarding ship- 
ments, packing, and manner of payment. It will de- 
pend largely upon the United States whether the bulk 
of the trade now being carried on with you is continued 
after the war. It is my private opinion that unless 
some radical changes are made, this trade will return 
to Europe. Our people are by language and senti- 
ment sympathetically united especially with the French, 
where the Uruguayans go for their holidays, and the 
easy adjustments which the Germans and the English 
have made in our favour in the past have formed tra- 
ditions and associations of long standing. The Latin- 
American is peculiarly susceptible to traditions, and his 
conservatism and loyalty to people with whom he has 
been accustomed to trade are strong forces." 

The President of Uruguay impresses one as being, 
like most large men, exceedingly agreeable and human. 
We were received in a most unpretentious manner, and 
his kindliness was revealed in his desire to do every- 
thing in his power to acquaint us with the real condi- 
tions and facts making for a more thorough and 
friendly understanding between Uruguay and the 
United States. One receives the impression that, like 
the President of the United States, he enjoys the pleas- 
ures of private life untrammelled with the cares of 



276 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

office. One is told that among the President's diver- 
sions is that of joining a party of friends and going 
out to a large estancia, where a great barbecue is held. 
He indulges in the national custom, prevalent here as 
in Argentina, the other great cattle country, of sitting 
around a great fire over which an ox is roasted whole, 
and armed with a huge knife slicing off a generous 
piece of the fresh roast, which is held in one hand. 
Then, with a generous piece of the meat in his teeth, 
the dexterous manipulator of the knife is supposed 
with one slash to cut this off as close to his face as his 
nose will allow. One would surmise that the President 
owed his superiority in this exercise to the fact that 
his Executive nose is rather flat than long. One plainly 
observes that this is no game for one of Hebraic fea- 
tures. 

That Dr. Viera is practically well disposed to the 
United States and to American institutions was brought 
out by the statement that he was in favour of sending 
increasingly the students of this republic to the United 
States for education. 

"I am sending three of my boys at present," said 
he, "to American schools." 

It speaks well for the economics of this small re- 
public that, however Uruguay may have been tempted 
in critical junctures of her history, she has never defi- 
nitely repudiated a single obligation, nor overtly made 
a move which directly resulted in the continued depre- 
ciation of her credited claims. This statement was 
made by a representative of the National City Bank of 
New York, which has already gained an influential 
standing in the city of Montevideo. 



URUGUAY AND URUGUAYANS 277 

"Under the most trying conditions," continued the 
American banker, "when Argentina and Brazil did not 
hesitate to reduce their foreign debts by methods which 
are generally familiar, and when Uruguay had equal 
or greater provocation to follow their example, the 
Oriental Republic arranged for the settlement of its 
liabilities in full, succeeding at the same time in keep- 
ing its currency uniformly oh a gold basis." 
- It is always a surprise to Americans to realise that 
in this small republic, not much larger than Belgium, 
the American dollar is at a discount, being worth three 
cents less than the Uruguayan peso. 

To be sure we find that the country has been oc- 
casionally delinquent in meeting its obligations, but it 
has managed in some way to pay its debts in the end. 
Its chief weakness, which is repeatedly shown, lies in 
the tendency to encroach on the revenues which are 
morally destined for debt payments, to the end that 
the administration may be able to carry out some pro- 
gramme of expenditure, becoming so involved in the 
execution of these optional programmes as to be unable 
to straighten out its finances without temporarily sus- 
pending its payments. 

It has been stated that Uruguay is statistically 
wealthy but economically poor. The condition of its 
resources can only be realised when one considers 
that less than five thousand men own nearly eighty per 
cent of the land, and one hundred individual owners 
claim approximately an equal percentage of the capital 
employed in business enterprises which are not financed 
by foreign money. Foreigners in this republic own 
forty per cent of the land and the business capital, and, 



278 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

as is the case in Chile, a very large part of the annual 
earnings is sent to foreign lands, subtracting consider- 
ably from the country's wealth. 

Here in Uruguay moreover, also similarly to the 
condition in other South American republics, there 
is noted a feeling of uncertainty and what is spoken of 
by foreign business men as "watchful waiting," rela- 
tive to launching out in investments because of the fre- 
quent manifestations of the government to encroach 
on the fields customarily reserved for private initiative. 

The economic resources of the country lie at present 
largely in its grazing enterprises. Uruguay is a re- 
public which gains its living chiefly by its cattle and its 
sheep. Formerly horses were also reckoned as a con- 
siderable item of wealth, but the visitor is told that 
during the various revolutions the revolutionists had 
the habit of pre-empting the horses as a part of their 
legitimate gain, thus discouraging the enterprise. 

One will be told by enthusiastic Uruguayans, who by 
the way are as patriotic and loyal to their state as are 
other South Americans, that there are many manu- 
facturers here. Some will tell you that there are at 
least one thousand different firms manufacturing dif- 
ferent products, but when closer investigation is car- 
ried on in relation to these matters, it will be discovered 
that the enterprises are usually small and compara- 
tively insignificant. As a matter of fact, because of the 
lack of native iron, lumber, coal and other fuel, and at 
present raw materials of any kind, except wool, hides, 
beef, tallow, and an uncertain quantity of wheat and 
corn, manufacturing industries are handicapped here; 
they can be carried on only under artificial stimulus. 



URUGUAY AND URUGUAYANS 279 

Because of the fact also that cattle and beef-raising 
require the use of large areas, small farms are sel- 
dom seen, and the small immigration gives no imme- 
diate promise for the likelihood of dividing up the 
land sufficiently to make desirable holdings on a small 
scale by immigrants. 

I asked a prominent member of the Chamber of 
Deputies the first need of Uruguay. 

He answered, "Population. We have a country 
that could feed ten million, and we have only a million 
and a half." 

It probably lies near the truth to say that the fear 
of revolutions has been one of the causes in preventing 
a flow of immigrants into Uruguay in any such man- 
ner as they have gone to Argentina. This fear is now 
groundless. 

At present about ninety per cent of all the indus- 
tries in the republic originate in the raising of sheep 
and cattle, which activities are responsible for ninety 
per cent of the exports, establishing the basis upon 
which ninety per cent of the business of the country is 
built. It seems at first strange to the foreigner to 
realise that Uruguay exports practically everything 
that it produces and imports virtually everything that 
it consumes. Transportation is greatly needed to fur- 
ther the development of trade and wealth. The rail- 
ways cover fairly well the productive territory, but 
there is still great need within the districts which now 
embrace them for further transportation; especially 
is there need of good wagon roads as feeders for rail- 
ways; the government is showing signs of recognising 
this need. 



280 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

The thoughtful economist will tell you that the coun- 
try needs a large number of roads built right and left 
up and down through the territory, but even this im- 
provement will be almost useless until a source of live* 
lihood in small farms can be assured for the population. 

Notwithstanding its handicaps, Uruguay has been 
peculiarly prosperous, though foreign business men 
seem to think that this prosperity has reached its limit 
unless aggressive measures are employed to secure a 
larger number of inhabitants and provide them with 
the facilities with which to live and to work. 

The following description of the economic and in- 
dustrial life of the country was given to me by a keen 
student of Uruguay's finances : 

"Take part of the cattle-raising section of Texas, 
covering an area as big as the State of Nebraska, with 
more or less the same population; put one-third of the 
population in Omaha, and then surround the whole 
country with a wall. Require the people either to pro- 
duce locally everything they need with no resources on 
which to work or bring it in from other countries at 
an additional cost equal to a freight haul of 6,000 
miles and customs charges of one kind or another, or 
about fifty per cent of the landed cost. Add extra 
large profits demanded in order to offset a string of 
internal taxes and costs of operating on long term 
credits, and to keep up a system of 'small sales and 
large profits,' as distinguished from a system of 'large 
sales and small profits.' Add a condition where five 
thousand persons own nearly everything. Top it off 
with a public debt of over one hundred and fifty mil- 
lion, an army and a navy, a diplomatic service, and an 
uncontrollable desire to own all the public utilities 
of the country. Considering the credit standing of 



URUGUAY AND URUGUAYANS 281 

Nebraska, with none of the handicaps mentioned, one 
marvels how Uruguay succeeds in laying claim to the 
adjective 'prosperous.' " 

There is a demand naturally in Uruguay for capital 
and labour, but the labour problem has not assumed 
large proportions as yet beyond the practically simple 
requirements of pastoral pursuits. The need of capital 
has not been so easily satisfied, and the result has been 
that a large part of the country's activities is carried 
forward on credit. It is this matter of credit which 
constitutes at present the chief potential menace to the 
finances of this government. As regards the condi- 
tion of the country's currency the following statement 
of a prominent foreign banker in Montevideo is il- 
luminating: 

"The Banco de la Republica, owned by the republic, 
is the only bank of issue. It is required to maintain a 
gold reserve of forty per cent of its circulation, that 
is to say, for every dollar in paper in circulation it 
must have in its vaults forty cents in gold, and, con- 
versely, for every dollar in gold which lies in its vaults 
it may print $2.50 in paper. Having printed $2.50 in 
paper, it may put that much in circulation, and the only 
.practical way in which this may be accomplished is by 
lending it. In practice, under normally good condi- 
tions, there is nothing questionable about this proce- 
dure, but conditions of Uruguay are not continuously 
good. 

"In a broad way, Uruguay has no capital of its own, 
and must draw on the savings of Europe for its fi- 
nancing. The bank, which extends credit accommoda- 



282 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

tion, operates largely on these European savings, and 
mercantile credits accorded in Europe are based on 
these. Under favourable conditions, the exports from 
Uruguay more than offset the imports into the country, 
but the balance of trade is wiped out by service pay- 
ments on the Government's foreign indebtedness, and 
the transfer of dividends on foreign investments. Oc- 
casionally, therefore, gold must be shipped." 

By examining the revenues in this country one finds 
that the revenues from importations consisting of the 
basic receipts and additional taxes, bearing a variety 
of names, including so-called Consular fees, consump- 
tion taxes on imported food, etc., represent between 
fifty and fifty-five per cent of the value of imports, and 
close to sixty-five per cent of all revenue. Every mil- 
lion dollars' worth of imports means something like 
$600,000 in the government revenues, and when a con- 
dition arises which results in a loss of one million 
dollars in imports, there is a drain of over $600,000 
on the government treasury. 

This inter-relation of the finances of Uruguay with 
European conditions throws the republic almost 
entirely upon the stability or instability of European 
finances, and disturbances across the water result au- 
tomatically in the tightening of credit in Uruguay. 
As one has stated it, "In the ordinary course of events, 
a pistol shot in the Balkans means a failure in the 
River Plate, and that same pistol shot may play an im- 
portant part in affecting the government's ability to 
meet its obligations." 

In summary, therefore, it may be stated that the 
economic conditions in this highly self-respecting re- 



URUGUAY AND URUGUAYANS 283 

public circle about the resources comprised in sheep 
and cattle raising, a high gold standard of currency, 
and ability thus far to secure credit in Europe espe- 
cially, with a consequent dependence upon European 
conditions for continued prosperity. The only method 
by which it would seem that Uruguay can free her- 
self from her present handicap would be in provid- 
ing conditions for a comparatively large immigration, 
through certain divisions of land holding and the 
building of country roads, which would make feasible 
and profitable the means of livelihood for a greatly 
enlarged circle of inhabitants. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE MEN OF BRAZIL 

There is a great deal of spiritual energy in the Universe, but 
it is not palpable to us until we can make it up into a man. 

Emerson. 

AMONG the things which have been said about 
the greatest republic in size in South America, 
too little attention has been given to the Brazilian him- 
self, his personal characteristics, his mental attitude 
derived from inheritance and environments, and his 
general point of view of life. In the last analysis 
it is the man of the country that counts. His institu- 
tions are but reflections of him. His history is prac- 
tically his biography, and success in trade or inter- 
national relations depends quite as largely upon a clear 
and thorough understanding of the point of view and 
nature of the people with whom we are dealing as upon 
any matters of trade. 

Perhaps one of the best ways to discover the Bra- 
zilian is through his own interpretations of himself to 
the end of discovering what the men of Brazil think of 
their own characteristics. I asked quite a wide circle 
of inhabitants for distinctive traits among their con- 
temporaries. 

I find that a man of Brazil is spoken of as "a per- 

284 



THE MEN OF BRAZIL 285 

son born in Brazil no matter what may have been the 
nationality of his parents." 

He is a man also who does not lay stress upon the 
colour line and who is taken upon his worth rather than 
the colour of his skin. He is a descendant of a race 
mixture in which the Indian and Portuguese form the 
main ingredients, while in certain parts of Brazil the 
Negro strain is quite pronounced. The man of Brazil 
is a good business man particularly when in business 
for himself, though he is not regarded as equally ef- 
ficient in industrial concerns as the American when it 
comes to organisation and rendering service in large 
corporations or government enterprises. 

The Brazilian is a man of friendship and he is in- 
clined to devote even business and practical matters to 
this sentiment. He is generous to a fault and hospit- 
ably inclined. 

While the religion of the man of Brazil is Catholic, 
with some indications of Positivism, which at the time 
of the forming of the republic was a strong element in 
the country, the male portion of the inhabitants are 
at present more or less indifferent to religion. 

Politics take a large place in the Brazilian's life, 
and the law schools, which combine the college and 
university training, are perhaps the most popular in- 
stitutions of the country. As an orator, poet, literary 
person, with an especially strong penchant for acquir- 
ing languages, the Brazilian is noteworthy. In dress 
he is scarcely to be excelled, in politeness and cour- 
tesy he can usually give suggestions to Americans and 
the Anglo-Saxon generally, while his devotion to the 



286 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

home, his chivalry toward his women, and his love of 
pleasure and amusement, are distinctive traits. 

The general attitude of the Brazilian of the higher 
class was quite clearly revealed to me through an in- 
terview with a large coffee planter. 

Joaquin de Souza-Queiroz is the scion of one of the 
olde'st aristocratic Portuguese families of Brazil, whose 
large coffee "facendo" at Campinos is one of the old- 
est coffee farms of this republic. Sr. Souza-Queiroz 
was educated in England, France and Germany, and in 
personal appearance, attitude of mind, and social stand- 
ing, represents excellently the type of the wealthy cof- 
fee-class Brazilian. 

I first met this personage on his coffee farm in the 
State of Sao Paulo in an old baronial-like mansion, 
looking far away over rolling estates which were 
clothed with a half million coffee trees, at the time in 
full bloom. This coffee planter, like others of his 
clan, spends several months of each year on his estate, 
dividing his time usually in three-fold measure be- 
tween his coffee farm, the city of Sao Paulo and Eu- 
rope. The habit of spending four or five months in 
continental capitals — Paris, Nice, Rome and Berlin — 
especially in Paris, is considered the correct life of the 
men of wealth and family here in Sao Paulo. 

When asked if he had ever visited Egypt or the 
Far East he replied, "No, I have always thought 
that I would see Constantinople, Cairo and Russia, 
but somehow, when I get to Paris and the other cities 
of France and Italy, my four or five months abroad 
pass quickly and I never seem to have the time or the 
inclination to go elsewhere." 



THE MEN OF BRAZIL 287 

Despite the fact that our Brazilian gentleman was 
educated, in part, in England, where he learned to 
speak English very well, he has never visited the 
United States, and knows North America only through 
its representatives who have made flying visits to 
Brazil, and through acquaintance with business men 
from America who have elected to make the Bra- 
zilian republic their home. Sr. Souza-Queiroz's fam- 
ily acted as hosts for Col. Roosevelt when he visited 
Brazil, and the former President, together with Elihu 
Root, were the two public men of North America 
whom our Brazilian coffee planter had met and ad- 
mired, and whose remarks he quoted frequently. 

We asked why he had not visited the United States. 
To which question he answered: 

"I suppose it is because we think of the United 
States as a new country, something like our own, and 
we Brazilians are naturally interested in the Old 
World, which is our mother country. We are inter- 
ested in its art, its history, its old buildings and its 
music." Then laughingly he continued, "You know 
we Brazilians don't spend all of our time in the Pa- 
risian cafes throwing gold coins to the dancers as we 
are reported sometimes to do. Personally I like to 
go to the Louvre and to the Luxembourg and spend 
hours among the old masters. It is furthermore a 
characteristic of our Latin temperament to be pas- 
sionately fond of music, and we go to the Old World 
for these things. We feel that you in America have 
eclipsed us in material achievements, but many of us 
do not consider these achievements so highly as you 
do; we admire the artistic and the literary side of 



288 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

life, therefore we go to those places where we think 
we can more easily satisfy our predominating inclina- 
tions." 

However, we found our coffee lord deeply interested 
in America and eager to ask all kinds of questions re- 
garding customs in the United States which seemed 
strange to the Brazilian. For example, in speaking 
of the Roosevelt visit we found that he was especially 
impressed with an incident connected with the Colonel's 
son, Kermit, who at that time was working quietly as 
an engineer in Brazil. One morning Mr. Roosevelt 
said that he was going to take breakfast with his son, 
and for the first time it was learned by this Brazilian 
family that our Ex-President had a son in Brazil. 

"The thing that seemed unusual to us," he said, 
"was that a son of a former President of the United 
States could be down here working quietly, 'on his 
own/ as a business man, and no one knowing about 
it, and especially asking no favours on the strength of 
his father's reputation. 

"Why," said he, "the sons of our rulers would never 
dream of taking up careers like this. When they work 
at all, they choose vocations of diplomacy, but many 
of them, in fact the great majority of them, seem 
to inherit the Brazilian disinclination to work, pre- 
ferring rather the gentleman's life of ease and an 
assured social standing." 

Although this Brazilian, like others of his class, 
seemed to be a bit predisposed to the empire form of 
government, this independent characteristic of Amer- 
ican young manhood to work out its own salvation re- 
gardless of family connection, impressed him favour- 



THE MEN OF BRAZIL 289 

ably. Being a comparatively young man, he reveals 
the characteristics of the mingled sentiment, divided 
about equally between a love for the imperial manner 
of life and the new republican ideals which are con- 
stantly gaining ground in this republic. 

It must be remembered that the present civilisation 
of Brazil is highly tinctured with the characteristics 
and standards of those three hundred high class Por- 
tuguese families which the old King of Portugal 
brought with him to this new land, and of which an- 
cestry the gentleman Brazilian is especially proud. 
The visitor will be told repeatedly that Brazil, unlike 
certain other South American republics, was not set- 
tled by a lot of adventurers, but that she was favoured 
in having the best blood of Portugal transferred bodily 
to this country as a foundation of her institutions and 
civilisation. 

I remarked that the old families of Brazil are said 
to be very exclusive and that one is told it is very dif- 
ficult for a foreigner to gain access to their homes, that 
they live among themselves, intermarry, and form al- 
most a feudal-like society. 

"We do this largely for self protection," was the 
reply. "We want to keep the Brazilian type, and the 
Brazilian ideals and blood as pure as possible. If 
every one intermarried with the other nationalities of 
the country, the distinctive Brazilian would tend to 
be lost, as we think. We want to keep the compara- 
tively few Brazilian families of old Portuguese stock 
true to the ancient traditions; we have pride in these 
traditions. Furthermore, we want to be ourselves." 

The truth of our friend's statement was exempli- 



290 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

fied recently in the city of Sao Paulo when the son of 
one of the old Brazilian families married the daughter 
of an Italian multi-millionaire. The young man paid 
for his independence of spirit by being practically os- 
tracised from his family, his club, and from all social 
life in Sao Paulo. This social exclusion is also apparent 
at the best clubs in this section. At the Automobile 
Club of Sao Paulo, for example, one of the most dig- 
nified and well appointed organisations of its kind to 
be found in the country, a most careful surveillance 
is kept over the membership. While there are a few 
select foreigners who are members, the old Brazilian 
families predominate, and these members will give 
at length and apologetically the reasons why these 
foreigners are considered eligible. Furthermore, these 
Portuguese-Brazilians who will meet the foreign club 
members at their social clubs, rarely think of inviting 
them to their homes. It is a comparatively rare thing 
for a foreign business man to be able to say that he has 
been a guest within the exclusive Brazilian home. 
In travelling in many countries we have been fre- 
quently amused and amazed at the social importance 
which dominates the minds of every one concerning the 
value of acquaintanceship with the few great families. 
In no country have we found the social register so well 
learned by heart and so often quoted as it is in Brazil. 
Even the hard-headed American business man, after a 
few months in this republic, becomes an animated 
"Who's Who" of information concerning the families 
who reign in his local social world. Quite likely in 
Oshkosh he never knew nor cared whether Maria 
Jones married Josiah Smith, but here he knows to a 




ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL AVENUES OF ROYAL PALMS IN RIO DE JANEIRO 



THE MEN OF BRAZIL 291 

nicety why Dolores Pintado married into the Quietado 
family. 

Here in Sao Paulo the Paulistas, as the inhabitants 
of this state are called, consider themselves as form- 
ing the community elite of Brazil. Even Rio is to 
them a bit inferior and socially undesirable. In fact, 
when we left Sao Paulo en route for the beautiful Bra- 
zilian capital, we were quite inclined to expect that we 
would meet none but mulattos as the proud Paulista 
had so often insinuated to us that the inhabitants of 
Rio de Janeiro had been so careless about their associa- 
tion with the negroes, that one must say au revoir 
in Sao Paulo to the really white Brazilian. One finds v 
of course, that this is not the truth about the popula- 
tion of Rio de Janeiro, although the farther north one 
travels in Brazil, the greater is the preponderance of 
the gentleman of colour, until in certain towns in the 
Amazon section, the traveller might almost imagine 
that he was visiting a city of the Black Belt of the 
Southern States. 

We next asked Sr. Souza-Queiroz how the republican 
ideas were working out in Brazil. 

The answer revealed the pride of the Brazilian 
in being an inhabitant of the only South American re- 
public that can boast of having descended from a real 
American empire. 

"Our Constitution was modelled upon that of the 
United States," was the reply, "with certain modifica- 
tions taken from the Constitution of Argentina. Its 
present weakness exists in the fact that it was taken 
over whole and without sufficient regard to the par- 
ticular character of Brazil's population and her con- 



UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

sequent divergent needs. The republican idea works 
well here in Sao Paulo where the state is modernised 
and where the citizenship is largely educated. But 
there are many other states in Brazil where conditions 
are less advanced, and where the negroes and the unedu- 
cated element were given the same rights and laws, for 
the execution of which they were not prepared. In 
other words, certain sections were given a constitu- 
tion too soon. As a consequence we have much polit- 
ical manipulation and what you in the United States 
call 'graft.' In the days of the Brazilian empire, 
furthermore, our diplomatic prestige was excellent 
throughout the world. Of course, we can not tell what 
this would have been had the empire continued, but it 
is apparent that we have not advanced greatly in this 
regard since we became a republic." 

Even this modern Brazilian who had, of course, 
never personally known the late Emperor, shared in 
the love and veneration which is found commonly, 
especially among the old aristocratic classes in this 
country, for Dom Pedro II, who held this country in 
his firm hand for so many years. This sentiment one 
finds is not confined to the old families for whose ad- 
vantage the empire existed, but the common people and 
the older foreign residents will tell the visitor to-day 
that, when the old Emperor was exiled, it was neces- 
sary to take him away in the middle of the night, 
without the knowledge of the people, who it was feared 
would rise en masse to keep their beloved ruler in the 
country. You will be told also that when Dom 
Pedro died he asked to have some Brazilian earth 
sprinkled over his grave, and his former loyal subjects 



THE MEN OF BRAZIL 293 

vied with each other in their desire to fulfil his last 
request. 

"What attitude does Brazil take regarding the re- 
cent Mexican complication with the United States?" 
we inquired. 

The answer revealed in substance the attitude which 
one finds in most of the South American republics. 

"You must remember always," said the Brazilian, 
"that we are Latins, and our sympathies go naturally 
with the Latin people wherever they are found. We 
recognise, however, that many Brazilians as well as 
Americans have suffered business losses by reason of 
the unsettled condition in Mexico. Yet the attempt 
by the United States to intervene and control Mexican 
affairs would be looked upon here with certain sus- 
picion and regret." 

When asked about his opinion concerning the Mon* 
roe Doctrine, our Senor was most emphatic in the 
statement that the attitude of the United States rela- 
tive to the "A. B. C." diplomacy was greatly pleasing 
to Brazilians. 

"This willingness to advise with Brazil concerning 
the Mexican matter has been," said he, "the greatest 
factor in recent years to dispose favourably the people 
of my country towards the 'States.' It is this kind 
of treatment of us by your country that helps to make 
friends for you here in Brazil." 

When we came to the discussion of the home and 
women, the characteristic attitude of the Brazilian, as 
well as that of most of the South Americans, was ap- 
parent. Few things are more impregnable to the for- 
eigner than the Orientalism of the South American 



294 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

states relative to women. Here, as in the East, the 
woman occupies a world apart. She reigns in the home 
supremely, but outside of the family circle she has 
little or no place. Women in business, and women in 
politics, or leaders of social movements are scarcely 
known as yet in Brazil, though in Chile and Argentina 
one will find women as clerks and stenographers in 
business houses and sometimes in the banks. In Sao 
Paulo we saw two women in the National City Bank 
as employes; one was English and the other a Bel- 
gian, but we were told that this was something of an 
innovation in southern Brazil. 

"We do not understand the customs of your 
women," said my Brazilian friend. "We are amazed 
at their independence of their husbands and their de- 
parture from their homes and their children to compete 
with men in business and in world affairs. With us 
our women are our home keepers. We like them for 
their feminine charm, their softness, their beauty, and 
those qualities which are the opposite to the masculine 
characteristics. I have been astonished in England, 
for example, to see the women working and competing 
with men in offices and in purely mercantile affairs. I 
have wondered at the lack of chivalry towards women 
on the part of European men. It seems to us to be a 
condition contrary to nature." 

My Brazilian aristocrat then went on to narrate an 
incident of an American lady who sought an introduc- 
tion to him in Paris because members of his family 
had certain intimate knowledge of the coffee market 
in the State of Sao Paulo. 

"The American lady," said he, "wanted me to give 



THE MEN OF BRAZIL 295 

her what she called 'tips' on the coffee market. She 
wanted to invest in coffee stock. I asked her if her hus- 
band knew of her investments. 'Oh, no,' she replied; 
'he is a manufacturer, and interested in entirely dif- 
ferent lines. I have my own money and am doing this 
on my own responsibility.' 

"As a matter of fact," said he, "I learned later that 
this lady lost several thousand francs in her coffee 
speculation. All this seems quite strange to us here, 
where it is the custom to care for women, and relieve 
them of all worldly cares and perplexities about busi- 
ness affairs. 

"We like to come home from our business to find a 
different life in the home," he continued. "We like 
to work simply in order to live; we do not live to 
work, and we never carry our business to our homes 
from the office any more than we would think of doing 
business in our clubs or over our social dinner tables. 
Pleasure takes a larger place with us evidently than 
it does with you. We want life that is as full as pos- 
sible of enjoyment and of ease, life that is associated 
with delights. We are temperamentally a romantic 
people, and the moment women fail to give us ro- 
mance, they lose for us their charm. Therefore the 
less that business or things relating to practical affairs 
are brought into our homes and into our conversation 
and relationship with women, the better it suits us." 

The generally universal sympathies which one finds 
at present in Brazil for the cause of the Allies, led me 
to ask the reason for this pro-Ally allegiance. 

"We love France," was the reply. "Here again 
the strain of blood and Latin loyalties are powerful. 



£96 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Furthermore, the Brazilian ties to Portugal, together 
with a large number of Italians in Brazil, add to the 
preponderance of national sympathy for the arms of 
the Allies. 

"At the same time," said Sr. Souza-Queiroz, "there 
are many reasons why we in Brazil should favour the 
Germans. We have never had any diplomatic con- 
troversies with Germany as we have had with England 
and the United States. We have excellent colonies 
of Germans in our country. These people have showed 
peculiar adaptation to us in commercial ways. There 
are certain imperial sympathies with Germany still 
alive here, due to our comparatively recent Brazilian 
empire. Our army moreover has been in close touch 
with Gemany both in training and in the use of Krupp 
guns and ammunition. Many people also think here 
that this is a trade war, and that the causes lie deep 
seatedly in commercial competition and prejudice and 
that Germany had cause to fear Russia's preparation 
and coalition against her with France and England. , 

"Yet, somehow, we do not like the Germans in these 
war times, and this is not because we care for the Eng- 
lish specially, for favourable sentiment to the English 
is not universal amongst us. The English have never 
been to us especially 'simpatico,' either in their will- 
ingness to learn our language or to adapt themselves 
to our ways. Yet, our Latin temperament rules us; 
it rules us often against our judgment, and it is com- 
mon to hear it said here in Brazil of Germans who 
have formerly held high positions in the country, 'He 
is a German!' and the people say this in a tone which 
is not intended to be complimentary." 



THE MEN OF BRAZIL 297 

As to the matter of the outstanding needs of Brazil 
at present in the way of immigration, we were told 
by this Brazilian that in his judgment the country was 
at present too lax in its immigration laws, that Brazil 
let any one and every one come into the country quite 
regardless of their character or the particular needs 
of Brazil. While the crying need of the republic is 
for population and capital, there are many of the older 
and more powerful classes who fear the influx of a 
heterogeneous herd of foreigners from various na- 
tions who do not understand the ways and the spirit 
of the Latin race. In other words, the slogan of the 
conservative loyalist is, "Brazil for the Brazilians," 
a modern republic to be sure, but one differing in many 
ways from the type which the United States has 
learned to conceive as the most desirable. It is above 
all a Latin republic, built, in part at least, upon im- 
perial sympathies and tinctured with a strong strain 
of Orientalism, influenced deeply by heritage, climate 
and traditions. 



CHAPTER XX 

BRAZIL AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 

Names have a greater importance in our American inter- 
course, than figures and statistics — and these (statistics) un- 
fortunately seem to be the only branch of South American 
literature that appeals to the practical mind of the student in 
North America. But even the practical mind may make the 
mistake of entering into the consideration of facts without a 
sufficient knowledge of their factors, and these factors bear 
names or have names connected with them. — Dr. Domicio da 
Gama, the Ambassador of Brazil at Washington. 

THE Brazilian, Dr. Amaro Cavalcanti, has been 
for many years an influential factor in the shap- 
ing and development of this newest of South American 
republics. He was one of the men selected for the 
preparation of a new Constitution when the new re- 
public was inaugurated. He has held many of the 
highest offices, political, judicial, educational and diplo- 
matic, in the gift of his country. A former Justice of 
the Supreme Court of Brazil; the general Inspector of 
Public Education; a Federal Senator; the Minister of 
Justice and the Interior; Minister Plenipotentiary; 
Councillor for the Ministry of Foreign Relations; dele- 
gate to the Third International Conference in Rio de 
Janeiro in 1906 — also delegate to fhe South American 
Financial Conference at Washington, 19 15 — Presi- 

298 



BRAZIL— AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 299 

dent of the Brazilian Society of International Law, 
and the author of many works on jurisprudence, fi- 
nance, politics, education and Pan-American questions. 
He is at present the Prefect or Mayor of Rio de 
Janeiro. 

It was my privilege to receive from Dr. Caval- 
canti a most frank opinion relative to the present needs 
and conditions in Brazil. It was my special desire 
to get this gentleman's opinion relative to the needs 
in political life which in his judgment were as fol- 
lows: 

i. Revenue Reform. 

"It is necessary," said this Brazilian judge, "to unify 
the revenue laws so that the revenues of the various 
states in exports and imports may agree more nearly 
with the Government or Federal revenues." 

2. "Certain revisions of the Constitution are also 
needed, especially in relation to the election laws in 
the States. At present the Governors have far too 
much control in their own hands and can decide their 
elections through their partisan appointees." 

According to Judge Cavalcanti the abuses of the 
electorate in Brazil constitute the chief weakness in 
this republic at present. 

A new and better Civil Code has been introduced, 
taking effect in 19 17. 

It was also stated that there was very much needed 
between the different states an uniformity of judicial 
procedure and a better distribution of responsibilities 
between the States and the Brazilian Union. It is 
evident that many of the problems which the United 
States of America has had to fight out relative to 



300 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

state rights, and state relationship to the Union, are 
arising to-day in the ever enlarging life of the Bra- 
zilian Republic. 

In relation to the Monroe Doctrine, which is more 
or less a common subject of conversation in this part 
of the world, Dr. Cavalcanti stated that those who 
seemed eager to give the impression that Brazil was 
prejudiced against this doctrine, were not well in- 
formed or they did not know Brazilians. 

"You must remember," said he, "that the United 
States first recognised the independence of Brazil, and 
since that time there has never been hostility on the 
part of our countrymen towards your northern re- 
public; on the contrary, I have noted throughout the 
years, since republican government was established 
here, the best feeling always among our statesmen rela- 
tive to America. Do we not have the Palace Monroe 
in the most prominent place on our Avenida, a con- 
stant reminder of the visit of Mr. Elihu Root?" 

Our informant suggested that the Monroe Doctrine 
might need modification from time to time, but that 
in his opinion it was both necessary and also highly 
profitable, mutually, to have the community of Amer- 
ican interests maintained as a unit. He also stated 
that he had given many times his unqualified support 
to the Monroe Doctrine and that he had subscribed 
to the A. B. C. arrangement with an idea that this 
would be an added force united with America to main- 
tain such a unified relationship. 

"If," said he, "the A. B. C. Powers should ever 
show an indication of becoming a force against force, 
or showing hostility to the Pan-American sentiment 



BRAZIL— AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 301 

which I strongly hold, I should feel like withdrawing 
entirely my support from them." 

I asked whether religion was increasing or decreas- 
ing in Brazil. He answered, "During the empire we 
had a state religion. When the republic came in, 
Church and State were separated. The result has been 
the increase rather than the decrease of religious inter- 
est. In place of three dioceses then, we have now 
thirty. Protestant Christianity also has been on the 
increase in Brazil, and there are many Brazilians who 
have accepted actually, if not outwardly, many of the 
Protestant positions." 

I asked relative to Positivism, and it was answered 
that Benjamin Constant, who was a teacher in the mil- 
itary school at the time of the proclamation of the re- 
public, took a large part in this movement. Most of 
his disciples were army officers, as he was also Min- 
ister of War. This revival of the philosophy of 
Auguste Comte occurred twenty-five years ago, and at 
present Positivism is a diminishing faith. There is 
one church of this movement in Rio de Janeiro, there 
being only one other of importance in the world, that 
one being at Liverpool. 

In spite of the statement of Dr. Cavalcanti regard- 
ing the increase of religion in Brazil, one hears fre- 
quently regarding the ignorance as well as the im- 
morality of many of the priests, who are devoid of 
much of that missionary enthusiasm which actuated 
certain of their predecessors. 

"What are the reasons for the Brazilians' liking for 
France?" was asked. 

"Was it on general principles, such as Benjamin 



302 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Franklin had in mind when he said that every man had 
two countries, his own and France, or were there spe- 
cial reasons in Brazil's case for cleaving naturally to 
her Latin sister across the sea?" 

It was answered that superior education came to 
Brazil from French books, that modern text books on 
law, engineering, etc., were not to be had in Portu- 
guese. The French language was learned by all edu- 
cated people and the French modes of thought per- 
meated the land. Even to-day the people's popular 
reading embraces French romances, which, in the judg- 
ment of many Brazilians, is not an unmixed blessing. 

Two decades ago English, German and the Italian 
language became popular, the English language espe- 
cially, and the one hundred students from Brazil who 
are now studying in the United States, especially in the 
engineering schools, are helping to counteract the 
French influence. 

As to the mixture of races in Brazil, Dr. Cavalcanti 
brought out the fact that there was no such race aver- 
sion in this country as existed in the United States. 
Men are accepted in politics, for example, according 
to what they have done and are doing, rather than ac- 
cording to their colour. It was stated that the inter- 
marriage with the negro in Brazil was largely on the 
part of the Portuguese immigrant and labourer, but 
that the best and educated families would not think, of 
giving their daughters in marriage to negroes. 

According to this Brazilian judge, the result of the 
marriage between the blacks and whites in the lower 
classes in Brazil is proving beneficial to the mulattoes, 
who are usually stronger physically and often stronger 




AVENIDA RIO BRA.NCO — RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL 
A NOTABLE AVENUE IN SOUTH AMERICA 




THE BEAUTIFUL BAY OF BOTAFOGA AND THE CITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO BY NIGHT 
SHOWING THE PEAK OF CORCOVADO IN THE DISTANCE AT AN 
ALTITUDE OF ABOUT THREE THOUSAND FEET 



BRAZIL— AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 303 

mentally than either of their parents. It is thought 
by many of the ^educated men that with proper time 
the white blood will dominate over the negro strain 
and that this is the one way in which to solve the 
vexed race problem. 

"You in the United States," said Dr. Cavalcanti, 
"have perhaps even a greater problem before you in 
this line, but it is my opinion that you will best solve 
it by allowing your immigrant from nations which have 
slight or no aversion to the negro, to make the mix- 
ture." 

I wondered what would be the effect of this argument 
if it was heralded from the housetops in any one of our 
Southern States. 

Relative to education, it was stated that the lack 
of schools in Brazil were due to the lack of resources 
on the part of the different states. There was also 
a great need of railroads and country roads in general; 
it is very difficult to send children to the towns to school 
since these towns are often from ten to fifty miles apart. 

I suggested that if there was a better administration 
of Government funds, there might be more money to 
spend on education, which in the elementary stages 
is at present lamentably deficient in Brazil. 

This was frankly admitted and it was also stated 
that the exaggerated love for politics on the part of 
Brazilians, and the consequent neglect of education, 
together with the application of theoretical knowledge 
to industrial enterprises, constituted a tragic weakness 
in the nation. 

It was stated that the two outstanding characteris- 
tics of this country were a love for peace and a ten- 



304 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

dency toward an intellectual development in letters and 
artistic things rather than a liking for and promotion 
of the practical and economic life of the country. 

"We are a peace-loving nation," said he, "we de- 
test militarism. We have had only one war and that 
was with Paraguay when our territory was invaded. 
Our army has been composed of a voluntary force 
for the most part, but now preparedness -and war are 
in the air, and every boy wants to be a soldier. Such 
a moment will pass; our national character and our 
traditions will dispel it." 

As to the lack of practical activities on the part of 
Brazilians, it was thought that the task would be a 
somewhat difficult one to get the people to leave tra- 
ditional channels of thought and apply themselves to 
industry as thoroughly as the times in this great land of 
rich natural resources demanded. 

"You in America say, 'How can we make a living 
and build a big railroad?' We Latin Americans are 
more inclined to say, 'How can we make a great poet 
or literary man, or statesman, and at the same time 
get pleasure out of life?' " 

It would seem to be in the bringing into personal 
contact and acquaintance the inhabitants of the two 
Americas, that the readiest solution of "Pan-Amer- 
icanism" is to be found. I have heard from many Bra- 
zilians the conviction voiced by the Brazilian ambas- 
sador to the United States — "less statistics and more 
friendly association." Reciprocal personal acquaintance 
and the study of the men and the methods of these 
two Americas, even more than the study of trade re- 
ports, for a time, would be a promising step toward 



BRAZIL— AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 305 

mutual understanding. To quote again from the Bra- 
zilian ambassador: 

"Unity, community, companionship, all presuppose . 
affinity of ideals at least. It is the names of these 
men which we ought to know as lasting memorials to 
the courage and virtue and wisdom and civic devotion 
that made them immortal among their own people. 
Let them cross their frontiers and our frontiers and 
mingle with our grandees in the same cult of moral 
beauty that exalts the mind of all civilized men. And 
when the communion of esteem and admiration for the 
nation-makers will be achieved, when names like Boli- 
var, O'Higgins, San Martin, Sarmiento, Andrada, and 
Rio Branco, will be as well known in the north of the 
continent as those of Franklin, Washington and 'Lin- 
coln are revered in the South, the greater part of the 
programme of Pan-Americanism will be accomplished 
and explained by itself." 

This plea for liberalism is important for Brazil to- 
day, and it is no less important for the success of 
American politics and commercial policies in dealing 
with this republic. 

There are many scores of Brazilian names which 
are to-day written high in the records of statesman- 
ship and letters especially, and among these is that 
of Dr. Ruy Barbosa — senator, statesman, diplomat, 
litterateur, master of international law and jurispru- 
dence, and without doubt the most popular orator and 
writer on liberal politics in present-day Brazil. 

Next to the name of Rio Branco, there is no other 
name found more frequently upon the lips of the pa- 
triotic Brazilian than that of Ruy Barbosa. He is the 



306 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

people's idol. Streets of Brazilian cities and towns 
are named after him; one or more Brazilian steamers 
carries his name; cigars and various brands of mer- 
chandise are called "Ruy Barbosa" to attract public 
attention, and when he returns, as he did two years 
ago from Argentina, where he had represented 
his country in a great speech, the streets of Rio de 
Janeiro are decorated as for a great general return- 
ing from his wars. "Viva Barbosa I" was taken up by 
voices of all classes of people as they crowded the 
wharves where his steamer docked, and followed him 
in triumphal procession through the streets of the 
Federal Capital. 

It is natural that any one who would study Brazil 
to-day should wish to meet and talk with Dr. Ruy 
Barbosa, and when the writer found himself entering 
the large baronial-like home and grounds of this Bra- 
zilian statesman in the city of Rio de Janeiro, it was 
with the realisation that he might hope to discover 
certain of the fundamental ideas and ideals of the 
people of Brazil, since Dr. Barbosa, more perhaps 
than any other man at present in public life, speaks out 
for his countrymen. 

I was met in the great library by a small man with 
a massive head covered with white hair. The man 
who greeted me with typical Brazilian politeness was 
sixty-seven years old, born in Bahia in 1849. His speak- 
ing acquaintance with many languages was also indica- 
tive of the cultured Brazilian, and we launched at once 
into conversation in English, concerning the political 
history and needs of Brazil. 

Dr. Ruy Barbosa told me in answer to my question 



BRAZIL— AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 307 

regarding the advantage of the republic over the 
Brazilian empire, how he had advocated a federation 
with the empire which Dom Pedro II, the Emperor, 
accepted, but which was refused by the political lead- 
ers in the last hours of the empire; this act made the 
revolution necessary which drove the royal family into 
exile. In this statesman's mind the transition was too 
abrupt between the empire and the republic and it 
had been his plan to bring in a democracy through 
gradual stages. Those who study modern Brazil, espe- 
cially in the states of the north and the interior, where 
republican forms of government are little more than 
a name, realise to-day the far-sightedness of Dr. Ruy 
Barbosa's proposed statesmanship. The condition is 
not dissimilar to that which existed in our own south- 
land shortly after the Civil War, when the negroes 
were entrusted with suffrage, which they were not in 
the least prepared to employ. 

Knowing that in a recent election Dr. Ruy Barbosa 
was the people's candidate for President, I asked him 
concerning the ideals which prompted him in becoming 
a candidate. It is generally known in Brazil that in 
this election Ruy Barbosa received the majority of 
votes, but in spite of this fact his opponent secured 
the office. 

"My candidacy," said he, "was not of my own choos- 
ing. It originated with friends of mine at Sao Paulo. 
It was to me a most interesting and encouraging cam- 
paign, for I had the privilege of making speeches 
throughout the country and getting acquainted with the 
people of the smaller towns and cities. These people 
flocked to the meetings with earnest enthusiasm and 



308 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

patriotic sentiments. They wrote me letters by the 
hundreds, and I was encouraged to see dawning indi- 
cations of republican sentiments, especially amongst 
the common people, which I had heretofore hardly 
dreamed existed." 

"Of course, as you know," continued the Brazilian 
Senator, "although I received the majority of votes 
and was really elected, politics and politicians in the 
Chamber of Deputies decreed otherwise, and my op- 
ponent, who was favoured by the 'machine,' was given 
the office." 

To my question as to the political reform most 
needed in Brazil to-day, I received this reply: 

"Political reform is sorely needed in my country, 
better laws and progressive measures; but the thing 
which is most needed of all is men who will execute 
these laws. It is not so much increased or different 
legislation which is required in Brazil to-day, as men 
of integrity and character in office, who will be found 
capable of putting into effect the laws which we al- 
ready have. Politics has tampered too much with in- 
dustrial enterprises," said he. "Railroads in my sec- 
tion in Bahia, for example, were built in the least feas- 
ible places in order to favour politicians, and the con- 
cessions which were given to foreign governments were 
of such broad and general nature as to make easy the 
defrauding of the Government and the people by the 
foreign syndicates who were chiefly interested in ex- 
ploiting the country and getting their pay for miles 
of railway built, regardless of the needs of the section 
through which these roads were hurriedly constructed. 
We are reaping to-day the results of political favourit- 



BRAZIL— AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 309 

ism in our Brazilian industries. We have too many 
men living on the Government. We have too few 
statesmen of large and unselfish minds who are really 
and vitally interested in Brazil as a whole." 

I found this Brazilian statesman, like Judge Caval- 
canti, and others of the statesmen with whom I talked, 
generally favourable to the Monroe Doctrine, and also 
thoroughly familiar with North American affairs. Dr„ 
Barbosa led me through room after room filled with 
books in various languages, and among these there 
were literally hundreds of volumes in English, having 
to do with politics and jurisprudence in the United 
States and England. I found him thoroughly famil- 
iar with President Wilson's writings on the history of 
the United States while he talked of our present day 
public men with perfect familiarity, telling me of his 
pleasure in having them at different times as his guests, 
and showing me, in several instances, their photographs 
which had been autographed by their owners on their 
visits to South America. 

In speaking of the value of the Brazilian republic, 
he said, "Thus far the republic has brought to us 
material advantages only; other things which have 
come in the train of the republic are not especially 
praiseworthy." 

He was profoundly convinced that the Latin Amer- 
icans were worthy of being taken seriously intellectu- 
ally, and that one of the first things that needed atten- 
tion was the laying of firm foundations for interna- 
tional law as well as fundamental education for his 
people, to both of which projects Dr. Barbosa has 
contributed notably. It was this statesman who in 



310 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

completing his civic education among the British people 
wrote the "Letters from England," which were pub- 
lished in 1896 and were read widely by Brazilians 
and other Latin Americans. 

I found the Senator a devotee to Carlyle, especially 
to Carlyle's "Cromwell." He was also an enthusiastic 
admirer of Anatole France, and in common with the 
Latin Americans, Dr. Ruy Barbosa elevates the vir- 
tues of sentiment and heart quality to a place rarely 
given to them among political leaders. 

This heart quality of Dr. Ruy Barbosa impressed 
me especially and was brought out eloquently in his 
simple and genuine home life. At his luncheon table 
I was surrounded by his children and grandchildren, 
as he holds to the old Brazilian patriarchal idea of 
having his sons and daughters with their families 
about him in the old home. During the luncheon hour 
two of his grandchildren were brought into the room, 
and for the time, politics, statesmanship and literature 
were utterly forgotten, and Dr. Barbosa was lost in 
the admiration of his children's children. He had 
them speak pieces for me, and as the tiny three-year- 
old girl waved her little hands and cried, "Viva, Ganpa 
Ruy Barbosa!" in imitation of the crowds which she 
had heard cry as they gathered about their home, the 
famous Senator was overjoyed, and one doubted 
whether the light that shone in the veteran states- 
man's eyes could have been duplicated by hearing the 
huzzas of the multitudes who had followed him so 
often down the crowded Avenida Rio Branco. 

In a very real sense Dr. Ruy Barbosa incarnates the 
spirit of chivalrous idealism of his race. He believes 



BRAZIL— AS BRAZILIANS SEE HER 311 

thoroughly in the ideal of a future international peace 
which will cover all nations. Like many of his coun- 
tryman, he finds it difficult to devote himself solely to a 
utilitarian regime. To him wealth and political power 
are means only to the end of bringing about a higher 
and a more ideal civilisation. His wealth is not in 
great piles of gold, for as he told me, he still finds it 
necessary to practise law as a profession, in addition 
to being a Senator of the republic, in order to support 
the large family dependent upon him. To Ruy Bar- 
bosa and to his Brazilian kind, standing at the pinnacle 
of this Latin American civilisation, human dignity oc- 
cupies a place above material advantages, and the 
spirit of literature and art are to these men, still, more 
potent than worldly aggrandisement and utilitarian 
success. 

A French writer has summed up well the character 
of Dr. Ruy Barbosa : 

"He is a man of imagination, but he is also a man 
of will, and it is owing, perhaps, to this happy harmony 
of all his faculties that, throughout his life he has been 
enabled to fill a mission of education at once political, 
social, and purely human." 

As a man of Brazil, the statesman represents in 
his personality and work the combination of qualities 
which the union of the traits of the two Americas 
might produce — a gentleman, a scholar, a successful 
man of affairs, and human being of heart quality and 
rich feeling. 



CHAPTER XXI 

AUTOMOBILING IN BRAZIL 

A LETTER reaches me here in Rio from an au- 
tomobile euthusiast living in an inland city in the 
"States," reading as follows: 

"I am meditating bringing my car for an automobile 
trip through South America. I have an ambition to 
be the first man who has ever crossed South America 
from the east coast of Brazil to the west coast of Peru 
in a motor car. Please give me your opinion as to 
the advisability of such a trip." 

I hastened to reply to my American friend that no 
more heroic adventure had ever been planned since the 
days of Pizarro, but that the only way I could conceive 
of his crossing Brazil with his automobile (from Per- 
nambuco to La Paz, Bolivia, for example) would be to 
suspend it to a German Zeppelin, or possibly take his 
machine apart, and with Anne Peck and Harry Franck 
as guides, engage a half hundred Indians to carry the 
whole party across on their backs. 

After a few months of travel on the outskirts of this 
vast country which is called frequently a continent, 
larger in area than the United States or three-fourths 
of Europe, with enormous interior areas still unex- 

312 



AUTOMOBILING IN BRAZIL 313 

plored and uncharted and inhabited by savage tribes, 
who live in jungle fastnesses as impregnable as any- 
thing to be found in Central Africa, the most ardent 
apostle of the motor car loses his fire. The man who 
would cross Brazil to-day from east to west would find 
a little jaunt awaiting him of several thousand miles 
across gigantic tablelands cut with irregular mountain 
chains, through tropical jungles which would have 
to be penetrated by means of the machete, and having 
for a "road map," if he was especially fortunate, a 
faint and often vanishing mule-track, and naught more. 

Of course, this might be accomplished by a man 
whose dictionary did not contain the word "impos- 
sible," but personally I should prefer for the sake of 
practice to run my car over the Flatiron Building or 
across the Egyptian Pyramids, and possibly take a spin 
across the Sahara desert. The average traveller after 
looking over the situation would be inclined to think 
it more salutary and expeditious to put his automobile 
on a slow steamer and sail to the West Coast via Cape 
Horn. 

Firstly, it must be remembered by the prospective 
auto-tourist to these parts that there are no interna- 
tional highways in South America such as those 'built 
by the Peruvian Indians in the palmy sixteenth century 
days of the ancient Incas, before Spanish conquest ex- 
tinguished road-making arts in the southern American 
hemisphere. There are some who claim that there 
were in Brazil (the oldest civilisation in South Amer- 
ica, as well as the youngest republic) good and well 
travelled roads in ancient days before the railroads ap- 
propriated them. But this country, severed by the 



314 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

equator, can not be sure of having good roads for any 
length of time unless an enormous budget makes them 
possible. The Brazilians must fight an equatorial cli- 
mate which is not conducive to good road making. 
One man from an inland town, speaking of the dif- 
ficulty in using his automobile, said: 

"I get my automobile out about once a year and 
run it for three days or such a matter. During the 
remainder of the year I can't use it because the dust 
is so thick in the dry season, and then when the rains 
come I can't use it because the mud is so deep." 

In the remote parts of this country inland, there 
are no means of communication worth mentioning save 
by rude trails and waterways, while along the coastal 
extent of Brazil the 18,000 or more miles of railways 
which serve the more civilised portion of the popula- 
tion appropriated any good road in their path. 

An automobile truck that essayed recently the com- 
paratively short journey from Rio de Janeiro to Pet- 
ropolis, only an hour and a half by an express train, 
after fifteen hours of struggling through terrible roads, 
finally found the highway leading to a railroad trestle. 
In Brazil the railroads were built first in the early days 
of the republic and the modernised highways have 
come only slowly afterwards. The American business 
man, resident in Brazil, who trys to use his automobile 
in the country here, invariably describes the roads 
as "impossible." 

It might be suggested in passing that there would be 
some chance for a cross-country Brazilian tour for a 
man with a motor cycle and an adventurous disposi- 
tion. If in the course of a year or two he managed 



AUTOMOBILING IN BRAZIL 315 

to get through the Brazilian swamps, and reached 
the old Inca trails over the Andes, there would be in 
store for him one of the most picturesque and vivid ex- 
periences to be found anywhere on the planet. The 
llama trails, which still run from Cuzco to the Pacific, 
pass through a country of stupendous and primitive 
scenery unsurpassed in any part of the Orient or Oc- 
cident which I have visited. If such a motor cyclist 
was proof against "sorochee," or mountain sickness, 
which attacks certain travellers, he could find virtu- 
ally an unobstructed trail after reaching the tablelands 
of the Cordilleras. I doubt not that he would decide 
after the months of whirling through Indian villages, 
encircling mountains whose sides are terraced and cul- 
tivated to the very snow line by the descendants of 
the Incas, and where wheat and maize are raised be- 
neath the equatorial sun 15,000 feet above the sea, 
that his year of struggle through Brazilian jungle was 
more than justified. I have often wondered in travel- 
ling in these parts of altitudinous Peru, what would be 
the result if, in turning one of these winding path- 
ways, a motor cyclist would suddenly be confronted 
by a pack train of a hundred llamas, driven by the pic- 
turesque Indians of the Sierras. Perhaps, after all, my 
enthusiastic friend of the Middle West, if he is will- 
ing to exchange his high powered car for a motor cycle, 
may one day find his name written high alongside those 
of Bolivar, General San Martin, Pizarro, Almagro, 
and other intrepid pioneers, immortal in South Amer- 
ican history. 

But speaking of automobiles in .Brazil, this industry 
furnishes a very good way by which to secure a side 



316 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

light upon what is happening in this big republic at 
present. 

As we looked out of our hotel window on the first 
morning after our arrival in Rio de Janeiro, among the 
first visions greeting our eyes was the Avenida Rio 
Branco, filled with fine looking foreign motor cars, 
drawn up in the centre of the wide avenue, each with 
its little red flag hanging out the side with "Libre" 
marked upon it. These were not the usual "taxis," 
which we were accustomed to hail in the cities of the 
United States, but luxurious French, Italian and Ger- 
man cars, big enough to seat six or seven persons in 
most cases, and giving all the appearance of privately 
owned vehicles, — save the "free" sign and the watch- 
ful look at the passers-by in the eye of the chauffeur. 

When I asked the reason for the best looking motor 
cars I had ever seen for hire in any city in the world, 
I was told of the "boom" year in coffee which occurred 
in 19 1 2, and the consequent purchase of European cars 
of excellent quality by the Brazilians grown suddenly 
wealthy; then the year of financial crash followed in 
1913 and the owners of these cars, some of whom had 
bought their automobiles on long credit, were forced 
to turn over their possessions to the "taxi" men, and in 
many other ways to practice retrenchment in their 
spending propensities. 

This was no small reverse to the Brazilian who likes 
to spend his money when he has it quite as much as 
the more thrifty Portuguese, coming here to make 
money, enjoys hoarding it. But the Cariocan, with his 
easy-going disposition and gambling spirit, makes a 
virtue of his necessity and walks as long as he can not 



AUTOMOBILING IN BRAZIL 317 

drive along the shining boulevard where all Rio goes 
daily, while the Brazilian maiden, instead of whirling 
along in a beautiful car over the fascinating stretch 
of palm-shaded roadways by the sea, contents herself 
by leaning out of her window according to Brazilian 
fashion. This custom of watching your world from 
the window sill or getting "corns on their elbows," as 
one has expressed it, is still very common in all Bra- 
zilian towns and cities, although it is beginning to be 
considered infra dig. Yet the fact remains that houses 
on the street car line command a larger rent than those 
in the more isolated section, because the carefully- 
coiffeured, thickly-powdered Brazilian seriorita may 
have the opportunity of attracting perchance a pros- 
pective husband, as he daily passes beneath her window. 

Another sidelight is thrown on the scene by the 
presence, in large preponderance in the streets of the 
national capital, of cars made in Europe. "Why not 
American automobiles?" we asked. 

To be sure, we noticed a section of a fine building on 
this same popular avenue filled with an exhibition of 
"Fords," advertising the small runabout at more than 
double the price charged for it in America, while the 
"Dodge," the little "Hup" and other American au- 
tomobiles of cheaper make are to be seen in Sao Paulo, 
Santos and other places in Southern Brazil. Yet, as 
a rule, it seems to be the French rather than the Amer- 
ican-made automobile which the visitor encounters 
everywhere in Brazil where cars are used at all. 

The answer to one's inquiries corresponds to that 
which will be met relative to many other commodities 



318 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

in the realm of luxuries which the Brazilian people 
have sought and found in the Old World. The re- 
public to the north is looked upon by the Brazilians as 
a great land of utilities. If they were seeking food- 
stuffs, or certain manufactures and things of prime 
necessity, they would turn perhaps to the United States 
for their supply. But the automobile is still largely 
a luxury in this country, something for the man of 
wealth in the city or for the rich planter to use on his 
"fazenda," and Europe has been for a long time the 
home of luxury, fashion, smartness and artistry for 
the inhabitants of Brazil. Like the Latin Americans 
generally, the Brazilians have looked upon Continental 
Europe — Paris, Naples, Genoa, or Madrid — for the 
exemplification of all that is old, cultured and aristo- 
cratic, while North America exemplifies to them the 
new and the utilitarian, and also, it must be added, the 
Anglo-Saxon rather than the Latin taste in manufac- 
tures. The Brazilian will be quite ready to buy bolts 
of the American dealer to rivet together the machinery 
in his factory, but when it comes to clothes for his 
lady, or motor cars in which to show them off — it is to 
Europe that he goes for his models and his purchases. 
This is not strange when one comes to see how it has 
all come about. Europe has flooded Brazil with lit- 
erature; she has entertained the South Americans with 
studied care, and her similarity of tastes and tempera- 
ment have revealed to her the nature and character 
of entertainment desired. French and Italian convent 
schools have been established throughout Brazil, and 
along with foreign text-books, there has come French 



AUTOMOBILING IN BRAZIL 319 

and Italian culture, and these latter have paved the 
way for foreign trade. 

Even the diplomats from the Old World have been 
trade promoters in disguise, for they have so truly 
understood and adapted their manners and their kind- 
ness to reach these people, that the Brazilian who fol- 
lows his delights more often than his dollars, pre- 
fers to buy an automobile from a Frenchman, since 
he "likes" his manner of selling quite as much as the 
style of the machine. 

Lord Bryce has pointed out in his book on South 
America that not only the beginning of the careers 
of the two Americas have been widely divergent, but 
beyond a fact of similarity in Constitutions of gov- 
ernment, there is little in common by way of lan- 
guage, traditions, history or temperament of the peo- 
ple. With the Latins of Europe, on the contrary, there 
is a strong strain of racial and sentimental unity which 
accounts for the choice in automobiles as truly as for 
the selection of an attractive place in which to spend 
holidays. 

Yet this does not mean that Americans do not or 
can not sell motor cars to Brazilians. At present the 
United States is having something of a monopoly in 
this business. 

In 19 1 5 American automobile sales in Brazil 
amounted to more than four times those of all other 
nations combined, but it is necessary to note in this 
connection that the purchase of cars had decreased 
from Germany, from 1060 in 19 12 to three cars in 
19 1 5, and instead of the 10 11 French cars sold in 
Brazil in 19 12, the records show that ten cars were 



320 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

bought from that country in the year 19 15. It is also 
enlightening to notice that in 19 15 there were only 214 
automobiles imported, while in 19 12, before the open- 
ing of the European war, there were 3,785 cars im- 
ported, only 785 of these being purchased from Amer- 
ica. The financial condition of Brazil, as well as the 
war, has contributed to this falling off of money spent 
for automobiles, a decrease from $5,368,650 spent 
for cars in 191 2 to $190,358 expended in 19 15. 

The financial condition of this country would seem 
to offer in the immediate future a challenge to the man- 
ufacturers of American cheap cars. The future of the 
automobile industry here, as far as the American-made 
machine is concerned, depends upon the way the mak- 
ers of vehicles in the United States prove themselves 
capable of studying the Brazilian needs, and adjusting 
themselves to these requirements. 

The market for motor cars in Brazil at present is 
almost entirely limited to half a dozen cities and to 
a few larger towns, also to the owners or managers of 
large coffee, sugar, or other sizable plantations. 

Rio de Janeiro, the federal capital, carries on usu- 
ally about 40 per cent of the entire amount of im- 
porting and distributing of cars, but one will find a 
goodly number of automobiles in such cities as Sao 
Paulo, where coffee is king, and in Santos, the coffee 
port, as well as in the coastal cities like Bahia, Per- 
nambuco and Para. The inland traveller also finds in 
Bello Horizonte, in the State of Minas Geraes, some 
excellent machines, the precursors of the coming period 
when good roads and many cars will be necessities 
as well as luxuries. 



AUTOMOBILING IN BRAZIL 321 

Santos is the one city that continues to flourish in 
the automobile trade in these war days, and in these 
parts the motor is coming to its own as a factor of 
farm equipment on the big estates. The writer has 
been hurtled across these great coffee "fazendas" in 
South Brazil in a "Fiat" at a speed that defied roads 
whose only constituents seemed to be deep sand and 
ruts; we can testify that these landed proprietors re- 
gard speed laws as only nominal obstructions in Brazil. 

It may be said in passing that only those manufac- 
turers who make cars on honour need apply, or ex- 
pect a return order in the rural parts of this country. 

Of all the twenty-one states that compose the giant 
Brazilian republic, the federal district of Rio de 
Janeiro is at present the automobilist's paradise. This 
district, which holds a place similar in the country to 
the District of Columbia in the United States, is re- 
ported to have at present 2,347 registered automo- 
biles, in addition to the Government machines, which 
do not require registration. 

To be sure, a city that is built largely on hills that 
ramble in most intricate profusion for many miles 
along the sea, does not give much opportunity for long 
or straight-away drives; but we would earnestly rec- 
ommend to all lovers of the automobile and the flying 
road, the motor trip for miles along the enchanting, 
winding water front of Rio. Here one is in the land 
of shining macadam, which is forgotten in the magic 
of the scene. 

One follows the various parks, or beaches, which 
fringe the parkway of the new Rio, called the Avenida 
Beira Mar. There is the shimmering sunlight on the 



322 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

peerless bay with its hundreds of islands by day and 
the myriad lights by night; then shooting through the 
tunnelled mountain that acts as a portal to the Avenida 
Atlantica and the already famous sea speedway bor- 
dering the broad Atlantic, for miles to the new Coun- 
try Club; here one stops and finds the Corcovado 
mountain, clothed with tropical vegetation at one's 
back, and in front the league-long rollers sweeping in 
from the distant Antarctic. If there is anything by 
way of automobile experience more indescribably beau- 
tiful or better fitted to leave the mark of indelibility 
than this, it is forthcoming as you continue your jour- 
ney in the famous automobile trip over the Tijuca 
mountain, from every zigzag turn of which a pano- 
rama of sea and city shows constantly a different face. 

A famous European traveller said there were three 
things he wished to do again before he died. One 
was to lie before his tent in the desert of Sahara in 
the moonlight; another was to sail again through the 
inland seas of Japan, and the third and best of all was 
to take once more a motor ride about Tijuca. 

Some day the flourishing Automobile Club of Brazil, 
which has a Senator just now for its President, and 
a site from which "every prospect pleases," will be in- 
viting the clubs of motor enthusiasts from the Old and 
New Worlds to an "International Automobile Car- 
nival" to be held along the white, sand-fringed curves 
of beach that guard Rio from the sea. Until that day 
arrives the automobilists of other and distant lands 
must survive upon second-rate sensations of natural 
beauty and abiding charm. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE SEA THAT GUARDS RIO 

Where the sea-egg flames on the coral, and the long-backed 

breakers croon, 
Their endless ocean legends to the lazy locked lagoon. 

Rudyard Kipling. 

IT is difficult to explain the seductive charm of Rio 
de Janeiro. Certain places hold one by a sense of 
remoteness, others by the spell of natural beauty. Rio 
is one of these cities which combines the old and the 
new, in such an atmosphere of tropical splendour and 
colour as to make an unforgetable impression. It is 
an example of the tropic-clad statuary of nature at her 
best. I know of no city in the world that is more 
engaging than Rio with its one million of inhabitants, 
resting peacefully in bright sunlight on the ankles of 
her great hills. 

There is something quieting and beautifully magic 
about the sea in Rio bay. Outside of imagination, 
there is naught elsewhere that approaches its charm, 
and he who stays long enough to really experience it 
is like one who dreams. 

The sea here is of the same colour as the soft 
chiffon-like mist of grey that veils continuously the 
surrounding hills. It is probably the utter harmony 

323 



824 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

to the eye that comforts one here and induces repose, 
or it may be the "always-afternoon" softness of the 
air that breathes about one a quiet peace. 

In every direction one may look there are moun- 
tains, and a prodigal luxury of verdant hills — one ris- 
ing beyond another and all seeming to be pushing for- 
ward as if to keep in view the sparkling, smiling waters 
of the peerless bay. In well-nigh every inlet a cluster 
of low houses, with their stucco walls and brown tiled 
roofs, furnish the exact colour shades of white and 
dull rose to blend with and not to jar the deep green 
of the hills beyond. Here and there a stately royal 
palm is silhouetted on a jutting promontory against 
the perpetual summer sky, keeping one mindful that 
he is living near the equator. 

Every tiny cove is fringed with an arc of white 
sandy beach, upon which brown-faced children play. 
Great boulders rise out of the sea here and there as 
though they, too, were loath to lose the beauty of 
these magic scenes above them; and lest they mar the 
effect, they cover their tops with rich foliage and rim 
their water lines with green sea moss. 

Before my veranda, not more than two hundred 
feet away, a procession of porpoises are now passing, 
rising in fascinating regularity above the smooth wa- 
ter; the glint of the afternoon sun on their glittering 
skins gives the effect of a string of shining black pearls 
strung on a green sea chain. 

But for the fragrant smell of the salt sea air, and the 
steady resistless lap of the tides on the shore, one could 
easily imagine that it was Lake George, or possibly 
Lake Geneva among the Alps, upon which he was gaz- 



THE SEA THAT GUARDS RIO 325 

ing; for as the breeze comes down from the distant 
hills, ruffling the undulations of these tiny arms of the 
bay, small boats may be seen putting out from a dozen 
diminutive harbours — while on the point of rocks near 
by a group of barefooted Brazilian schoolboys are fish- 
ing with long poles. 

A flock of gulls crosses an arm of the bay, coming 
in from some long air voyage over the sea, reminding 
one of Masefield's sea gulls, "The souls of drowned 
mariners, which the ocean could not hold." 

And now the soft tropical twilight is falling over the 
bay. The salt air blows warm but fresh upon one's 
face; the beat of the great ocean's heart can be counted 
more distinctly as the evening silence falls, and the 
surf moves further up the sandy shore. The lights 
come out from distant Rio like fitful fireflies, first flit- 
ting here and there, then becoming more steady in their 
myriad radiance. On many a rocky islet a lighthouse 
begins to twinkle intermittently, red, white — red, 
white. 

The bells of evening come faintly to the ear, borne 
across the water from a small hamlet church on a 
distant curve of the bay; the night winds sing over- 
head in the leaves of the palms and tamarinds, and the 
soft-sounding sea that guards Rio takes you in its arms 
like a mother her tired child at night, to soothe and to 
bid forget all care. 

IT IS RIO THAT I MEAN 

There's a city in the tropics 

That is fair as any queen, 
High Tijuca watches o'er her 

It is Rio that I mean. 



326 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

There's a magic in that city, 
It is like a golden dream, 

There's the Bay of Guanabara, 
It is Rio that I mean. 

I love that tropic city 

I love her sun by day, 
I love her brilliant evening lights 

That curve around her bay. 
I love her palm crowned hill tops 

With red roofs through the green 
I love her bells at evening, 

It is Rio that I mean. 

There's one man whom I envy, 

For he loved her first of all, 
It was from a Spanish caravel 

That Magellan was enthralled. 
It was he who saw Asucar 

Long before her airy car 
Had sailed the sky at nightfall 

Like a gleaming falling star. 

Did he know — that valiant sailor — 

On his voyage from the Horn, 
What this matchless bay would shelter? 

What a city would be born? 
Did he see the shining boulevards? 

Did the Avenida gleam? 
Did the lights on Corcovado 

Dance and beckon in his dream? 

I know not what my travelling days 
May bring me, passing fair. 

It may be isles of summer bathed in sunny 
Afric air; 
Perchance a Vale of Cashmere 

Neath Himalaya may unfurl, 
Or some inland sea of Nippon, 

Or some South Sea isle of pearl. 



THE SEA THAT GUARDS RIO 327 

But when journeyings are over, 

And the study lamps are low, 
And the One who walked beside me 

Through all this wide world's show 
Shall take my hand, and read my heart 

And murmur, "Which was best?" 

I shall see that tropic city, 

I shall see its palm leaves gleam, 

I shall see the lights of Nictheroy — 
It is Rio that I mean. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

SOUTH AMERICAN WOMEN 

IT is difficult to make general statements concern- 
ing the circumstances and influences that govern 
the conditions of women in South America, and at the 
same time give a picture sufficiently definite and dis- 
tinct to be of interest. The lines which set apart geo- 
graphically from each other the republics are not more 
distinct than the lines which for many reasons sepa- 
rate the women of Peru and Argentina, of Bolivia 
and of Uruguay, of Chile and of Brazil. 

One can go to South America with few precon- 
ceived notions regarding its women, for after search- 
ing through the volumes written about these countries, 
one finds only here and there a short paragraph dealing 
with the status of the women, and very little about their 
modes of living, their thoughts, ideals or ambitions. 
Book after book is written dealing with the commerce 
of this growing country, with descriptions of its great 
cities, its feudal-like farms, its possibilities for the en- 
terprising, ambitious young men from other lands, but 
nothing is said about the mothers and the wives of the 
men who are building the foundation of this coming 
land of promise. 

The modern currents that are affecting the women 

328 



SOUTH AMERICAN WOMEN 329 

of the United States and of Europe, that are reaching 
even the women of the Far East, seem to have touched 
but lightly the great body of the women of Latin Amer- 
ican lands. 

While sources of information are scanty, yet there 
is enough to show that many South American women 
have shown examples of great courage and patriotism. 

History tells us that the Brazilian women of Sao 
Paulo, in early colonial days, when their husbands 
returned home after a crushing defeat at the hands 
of the Indians, scornfully rebuked the vanquished war- 
riors with the command, "Go back and conquer, it is 
only as victors that we will receive you." 

The songs of the people of Colombia tell of the 
beautiful patriot Policarpa Salabarrieta, who was exe- 
cuted for her part in Colombia's struggle for liberty. 
She died, exhorting the seven men who were executed 
with her to meet their fate like men and heroes. Under 
the title of "La Polae," her name is loved by the com- 
mon people, and sixty years after her death the Colom- 
bian Congress voted a pension to her surviving rela- 
tives. 

Not only have women been courageous in war, and 
offered their husbands and sons gladly in the cause of 
Liberty, but an Argentine woman has been a distin- 
guished advocate for peace. The colossal statue of 
Christ on the summit of the Andes, at the border line 
between Chile and Argentina commemorates the treaty 
of peace made between the two spirited nations. The 
statue is cast from bronze of old cannon which the 
Spanish left at the time of the achievement of Argen- 



330 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

tine independence. On the monument is the inscrip- 
tion: 

"Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust 
than the people of Argentina and Chile break the 
peace to which they have pledged themselves at the 
feet of Christ, the Redeemer." 

The conception of such a monument came from 
Bishop Benavente and a woman, Sefiora da Costa, and 
it was she, who, as President of the Christian Mother's 
Association of Buenos Aires, undertook the work of 
securing funds and of getting the statue erected. This 
was accomplished and the statue, on a great column, 
in a pass about 13,000 feet above sea level, was dedi- 
cated March 13th, 1904, in the presence of more than 
three thousand persons. 

Sefiora da Costa's words telling the story of the 
monument, show the spirit of the women in whose 
heart and mind the idea was conceived: 

"The penetrating idea of the commemorative mon- 
ument was in the national atmosphere, and I had but 
to condense it in my spirit to give it tangible form. 
If the idea is mine, it is in the same way as to the 
sculptor belongs the statue which he brings forth from 
the block of marble where it was sleeping invisible, and 
I even dare to think that the idea had to issue from 
the brain of a woman, because it is an idea of sentiment, 
and in all time men have reproached us for thinking 
with the heart. 

Moreover, everything which tends to perpetual 
peace by its prestige and glorification especially inter- 
ests and affects us women, that is to say the mothers, 
wives, daughters, the betrothed of those who must fall, 
sacrificed on the battlefields. War may dazzle men 



SOUTH AMERICAN WOMEN 331 

with its lightning flashes of military glory. For us 
women, it represents only tears and pain; that is why 
the Latin poet called it 'accursed by mothers.' " 

It is difficult in writing of the women of Latin Amer- 
ica to speak of them collectively. There is a marked 
difference, for example, in the women of Peru and the 
more advanced women of Argentina, of Brazil or Uru- 
guay. The women of Peru are just peering through 
their latticed windows into the world outside, whije 
the Argentine has boldly stepped through the door- 
way. Yet the movement to give woman more oppor- 
tunities to develop her abilities, to express her person- 
ality, and to receive higher education is sweeping over 
this southern country, and one can watch its progress 
as one passes from Peru down the West Coast and 
across the Andes to Argentina and Brazil. 

At all hours of the day one sees black-robed figures 
winding their way through the narrow streets of Lima 
or Arequipa on their way to the churches where they 
will kneel before their favourite altar, asking a blessing 
upon the families who seemingly find their God through 
the piety of their women folk. It is a well known fact 
that the church is losing gradually its power in Peru, 
because the men are turning from forms and creeds, 
and in their emancipation are becoming agnostic. But 
the women still uphold their faith and will go to 
any length to preserve its forms and symbols. 

When the bill was introduced into the Peruvian 
legislature allowing the liberty of worship, it was bit- 
terly opposed by the Catholic church. The women be- 
came active partisans in the fight, and contrary to all 
precedent, the quiet, almost cloistered women of Lima, 



332 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

marched in the streets, going to the Senate and crying 
from its galleries as the bill was being read, finally 
throwing bunches of hay upon the embarrassed sena- 
tors, thus signifying that the women of Lima con- 
sidered them donkeys. 

But it was the first time that the ladies of Lima 
showed themselves in public demonstration, and per- 
haps it will be the last, as the Peruvian lady will be 
one of the last recruits for women suffrage or in 
fact for any movement that will take her outside her 
kingdom, the home. 

One sees many signs of Spanish civilisation in Peru, 
and especially in the rules concerning the lives of the 
women. The old Moorish domination of the Spaniard 
is seen in the screened balconies overlooking the streets, 
where the ladies of the house may watch the passing 
crowds in the street, themselves unseen. There is the 
long dark shawl draped around the head and face, 
and hanging in folds that disguise the figure, the cousin 
of the veiled custom of old Moorish days. There is the 
lace mantilla that is worn by all to church, as in Peru 
one can not wear a hat in the places of worship, and 
there are the inner patios around which are placed the 
women's quarters, hidden from curious eyes of those 
persons who might be visiting the master of the house- 
hold. 

It is all Eastern, and although the Peruvian lady has 
travelled, and may have been educated in France, still 
she is Oriental in her belief that the woman's realm 
is the home; she feels that she is the sole property of 
her husband and her children, her only aim in life 
to keep well her household and to see that her children 



SOUTH AMERICAN WOMEN 333 

make their mark in their appointed places in life. Like 
her sister, the woman of India, she does not care to 
become a star herself, she only wishes to shine in re- 
flected glory. 

The young girl of Peru is educated with but one ob- 
ject in view, that of obtaining a husband. She is taught 
to play the piano, embroider, speak French, dance, 
and generally make herself attractive. She is acknowl- 
edged by all to have a very good brain, in fact, some 
say the woman is superior to the man in Peru, intel- 
lectually, morally and physically. But as far as her 
intellect is concerned, she is not given the opportunity 
to develop it. She does not read except the rather 
highly coloured French novels or translations of those 
romances that appeal to the emotional Latin American. 
She is not taught to think, and her men folk try to 
come down to her level in their conversations with her. 

Yet there is no woman who has more native wit, 
who is quicker and brighter at repartee than the Peru- 
vian, and all admit that there is no woman who has 
a higher standard of morality than have these same 
dark eyed sefioras, who live in a country where there 
are no divorce laws. 

In Peru, especially, the women are conservative, 
living their life within the women's quarters, nearly as 
Oriental a life as is lived by the harem women in India. 

The women of the better class particularly form the 
stronghold of the Catholic church. They have not 
had the education nor experienced the modernising 
influences that have alienated the men from the faith 
of their fathers. The church, its fasts and its feasts, 
the early morning mass, the confessional and its elab- 



334 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

orate ritual seems to be the main avenue through which 
the women get into contact with the world outside 
their homes. Women go to mass every morning, many 
go to confession every day, and the Sacrament is taken 
at least once a week, and by many the day is com- 
menced by partaking of the consecrated wafer. The 
daily confession gives the priests great power in in- 
fluencing the life of the home. 

Many of the fathers would like their sons educated 
in secular schools, but the influence of the church is 
towards the schools conducted by some one of the 
Catholic orders, and pressure is brought to bear upon 
the mothers : consequently the average youth of the 
better class obtains at least his primary education in 
the Church institutions. 

The girls are trained in the convents of their own 
land, or in Europe, but their education is generally 
superficial, consisting in what we would call a "finish- 
ing education," music, a little painting, languages 
(very many girls in the South American republics are 
accomplished linguists), a slight knowledge of Spanish 
and French literature, and deportment. They have 
charming manners, are intensely feminine, and when 
young the Peruana is often very pretty. She has large 
dark eyes, which she knows how to use effectively, and 
a good complexion, a graceful figure (which she loses 
often by the time she is thirty) , and hers is the art of 
dressing with much taste. She knows how to wear her 
clothes, and whether she is a woman of the middle 
class, dressed in a manta, or black shawl draped around 
her head and covering her body to the knees, or in 
the ordinary street gown of European manufacture and 



SOUTH AMERICAN WOMEN 335 

the lace mantilla over her hair, she is always chic and 
attractive. 

In Peru the women of the better class do not wear 
a hat in the morning as they are supposed to have been 
to church if they go out of the house before noon, and 
it is forbidden to wear a hat in any church in Peru. 
But in the afternoon she may be seen in the shops or 
in motors hurrying to some afternoon tea or bridge 
party, dressed in the latest Paris creation. Women, 
and especially young women, are never seen alone in 
the street, as it is considered most improper for a 
woman under forty to go out of her home unchaper- 
oned by an older woman. Another peculiar custom to 
the northern visitor, is the fact that a woman upon 
meeting a man acquaintance does not bow to him un- 
less he first salutes her, and she would never stop 
and talk to him, although he might walk with her for 
a few steps, if she was accompanied by some older 
member of her family. 

A young man calling upon a Spanish family (and 
this custom is quite universal in all of the South Amer- 
ican countries) is never left alone with the daughter of 
the household. If the parents or chaperons should by 
chance leave them alone together, it is expected that he 
will propose to the girl, and if he is inclined to enter 
the doors of matrimony and should be accepted by the 
young lady, it is his last opportunity of being alone 
with her until the marriage vows have been pro- 
nounced. After marriage the woman enters upon her 
heritage of social freedom, yet she is restricted to a 
certain extent. A married woman does not receive a 
caller of the other sex in her husband's absences, nor 



336 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

does she dance with any man except her husband. She 
would not think of entertaining or being entertained 
in his absence, and if he is away from home for any 
length of time, she is supposed to remain secluded until 
his reappearance upon the scene. 

The business world is just beginning to open its 
doors to the women of South America. In Ecuador, 
Colombia and Bolivia women have not yet entered 
into the industries or the professions, and there is 
scarcely as yet any paid work for women outside of 
the home. In Peru the woman who has to work for 
her living is looked down upon. There is a great gulf 
in this aristocratic country between the labouring and 
well-to-do classes, which makes it especially hard for 
women to enter the business world. Many prefer to 
do "sweat shop" labour for the big firms, barely ek- 
ing out a miserable existence, yet still feeling that they 
are keeping their "caste" by doing the work at home, 
rather than work publicly where they will be seen by 
their neighbours, and classed as working women. 

Even women teachers have little standing, and it is 
within only the last few years that women have taken 
positions as cashiers, clerks, or stenographers. Of the 
handful of women who have graduated at the univer- 
sities, one is practising medicine, two dentistry, a few 
pharmacy and a few others are conducting private 
schools. The old Spanish pride for some time to come 
will keep the better class women of Peru from entering 
the business world in any capacity. Nevertheless there 
is developing gradually a middle class of women who 
are intelligent, and who because they are not afraid 
of work and have no feeling of disgrace in their toil, 



SOUTH AMERICAN WOMEN 337 

are developing intellectually and will eventually open 
the way for other women to learn that there is a means 
of livelihood other than that of marriage. 

There is an element of greater independence in Chil- 
ean womanhood, and their entrance into the industrial 
world has put a new emphasis on the dignity of wom- 
an's work. In the large cities they are found mainly 
in the factories and stores, but they are gradually en- 
tering the government and business offices. Stenog- 
raphy and typewriting are being taught in the girls' 
professional schools, but the chief profession open to 
women is that of teaching. The Chilean woman is 
more advanced than are the women of Colombia or 
Peru. She is an ardent supporter of the church, but 
less bigoted and narrow than the Peruana. She is more 
cosmopolitan, is not tied down so closely by tradition 
and custom, and is keeping step with the man of Chile 
in his modern progress. There is no Chilean type, as 
there is in Peru. The woman you meet on the streets 
or in the beautiful homes of Valparaiso or Santiago, 
might be seen in New York or Paris. She may be of a 
distinctly German type, or look like an English woman 
just come from some village in Great Britain, as many 
of the English and German colonists married Chilean 
wives, and their descendants may be traced by their 
fair hair and blue eyes. If of the upper classes, she 
is often very charming and of unusual beauty. 

Across the Andes one comes into another world al- 
together than that seen on the West Coast. In Ar- 
gentina everything is so intensely modern and up-to- 
date, that it is quite disappointing for the visitor look- 
ing for "local colour." There is no colour in Argentina 



338 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

save the colour of gold that seems to cover everything. 
Argentina is so prosperous, so vulgarly rich and con- 
tented with herself. Her capital, Buenos Aires, is a 
beautiful city, a mixture of Paris, Berlin and Chicago. 

Its streets and boulevards are among the broadest, 
the longest and the finest in the world. You thor- 
oughly realise it, even before you are told it. Its shops, 
its jewels, and its crowds of well dressed women com- 
pare favourably with those in any city on the globe. 
Luxurious motors may be seen carrying exquisitely 
dressed women and children to and from the great 
houses that line the principal resident streets. Here 
again there is no distinct type. You can not point to a 
woman and say, "That is an Argentine." The races 
are quite mixed. 

The Argentine woman is advanced and she is enter- 
ing the world of business and thought. Women are 
contributors to the leading magazines and philosophical 
reviews, and they are studying in the universities and 
technical schools, and there is a large and ever growing 
number of business women in Buenos Aires. Large 
numbers are employed throughout Argentina as teach- 
ers, and stenography is becoming very popular. Teach- 
ers of languages, dressmaking, and domestic science are 
to be found in the larger cities and towns. 

The women of Argentina, in their new found free- 
dom, are advancing a little too fast for their spiritual 
good. Many of them pride themselves that they have 
left their old religion far behind, and that they do not 
need a new one. I asked a woman doctor, a graduate of 
the University of Buenos Aires, if she went to church. 

"Indeed, no," she replied. 



SOUTH AMERICAN WOMEN 339 

"But your friends go to church?" I inquired. 

"Indeed they do not," she said. 

"But, have you no religion?" I asked. 

"We are rationalists," she answered. 

"But women must have a religion," I said. 

"Why should they?" she inquired, and I abandoned 
the argument. I have found that when women get 
so learned and advanced that they feel they are suf- 
ficient unto themselves, it is time for mere man to retire 
from the scene. 

In Brazil one finds the quiet, home woman again. 
She has not entered public life except in a few cases. 
There is a quiet charm about her not found in her 
more advanced sister of Argentina. She is not so 
modern, obtains her education in the convent schools, 
and still believes that woman's realm is the home. The 
Brazilian type does not make for great beauty, as the 
intermixture of many bloods has made her, especially 
in the lower classes, rather too dark, at least for 
American taste. But her eyes and hair are always 
beautiful, and the young girl is graceful and coquettish 
and attractive, but she, like the Peruana, loses some- 
what of her beauty early in life, and tends to settle 
down often into placidity and domesticity of the rather 
ordinary sort, when she has found a husband and borne 
him a son or two. 

The women of South America are among the best 
wives and mothers in the world. They love chil- 
dren, and believe themselves truly blessed if they can 
bear a large family, the larger the better, to their lord 
and master. There are never too many babies in a 
South American home. Among the poor the tragedy 



340 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

is that the mothers in their ignorance do not know how 
to care for their babies. Along the West Coast from 
forty to ninety per cent die under two years of age. 
The mothers of the better class lavish a wealth of 
tenderness upon their children but do not train them in 
self discipline. They are often what we call in our 
country "spoiled," although they appear to the stranger 
to have beautiful manners. When a child enters the 
house he kisses his mother upon the cheek, and his 
father upon his hand, and so far as superficial respect 
goes, it is all that may be desired. 

The homes of the richer class of South Americans 
are magnificent and even the poorer homes have a 
certain charm with their flower-filled patios, and great 
high-ceilinged rooms, although these same big rooms 
are uncomfortable in the winter, especially in the 
West Coast and in Argentina. There is no heat in the 
houses, and the women sit around tiny braziers or oil 
stoves, bundled up in their furs. They think that it 
is unhealthful to have heated houses, and obey the 
doctor's injunction to put on heavy clothing in the 
house, and take it off when going into the sunshine. 

There are few conveniences in the average South 
American middle or lower-class home in Peru; the 
kitchens are simply earthen floored rooms, where the 
food is cooked over a charcoal brazier, and the guinea 
pigs and chickens play around under foot. Cleanliness 
is not understood, and their ideas of sanitation are of 
the simplest. Often in towns such as Cuzco, the fam- 
ily linen is washed in the open drain passing in front 
of the door, as microbes are things still unknown to 
the average woman in South America. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE RELIGION OF THE SOUTH AMERICANS 

Facile belief is of but little value; it often only means that, 
as certain words make no impression whatever upon the mind, 
so they excite no opposition to it. There are few things which 
Christ would have visited with sterner censure, than that short 
cut to belief which consists of abandonment of mental effort. 

Sir Oliver Lodge. 

THE student of Peruvian religion will discover 
similarities between the faith dominant in this 
country during the long rule of the Incas and that which 
was introduced into the more modern Peru by the 
Spanish conquerors in the early part of the sixteenth 
century. 

The Inca religion, which was a mixture of theocracy 
and sun worship, was like the Roman Christianity, an 
authoritative and super-imposed faith. It was an af- 
fair of the State and the rulers held their subjects re- 
ligiously as well as politically responsible. The two 
orders of belief were both attended by an opulence of 
religious establishments, an ostentatious ceremonial in- 
tended to impress with awe the people ; a superior pre- 
dominance of the sacerdotal order, and innumerable re- 
ligious feasts together with the prevalence of sacrifices. 

The orthodox Spaniards who first came into Peru 

341 



342 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

noted a striking resemblance in many of the old Inca 
religious rites to those at that time prevalent in the 
Catholic church. In the distribution of bread and 
wine at the Inca festival of Raymi, the Christian cus- 
tom of communion was suggested, while in the practice 
of confession and penance which seems to have been 
in vogue in a somewhat irregular form amongst the 
Peruvian Indians, they discerned a similarity to an- 
other of the sacraments of the Roman church. These 
analogies, however, were usually attributed by the 
Catholic fathers to the contrivances of Satan who 
seemed to be endeavouring to delude his victims by 
counterfeiting the ceremonies of the only true religion. 
So marked were these likenesses that at one time there 
was a tradition that one of the Apostles had himself 
visited these South American realms and deposited the 
seeds of the Christian gospel. 

In both the ancient and modern religious systems 
of Peru there is discovered particularly the evidence 
of a mild but a searching religious despotism, in which 
independent individual thought and personal convic- 
tion have far less influence than in the religious char- 
acteristics of North American inhabitants. 

One of the first impressions of the traveller in Peru 
is that of the all-prevalent sway of religious adherence. 
In theory at least, every one is a Catholic in faith, and 
the innumerable churches together with the large num- 
ber of priests and church officials met with everywhere, 
would seem to reveal a universally religious state. 

Although a closer inspection of this matter reveals 
that many of these churches are rarely filled, espe- 
cially with men worshippers, that indeed the educated 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 343 

young Peruvian is inclined to-day towards rationalism 
and an indifferent attitude toward the church, never- 
theless it is a fact that the government supports the 
Roman faith as a national religion, and until recently 
included in the Constitution a clause virtually inimical 
to any other faith. 

In this respect modern religion in Peru had its 
counterpart in the ancient belief of the Incas. To 
them religion was the basis of their entire polity, and 
it was interwoven with their social existence quite as 
closely as Hinduism has associated itself with the 
daily life of the East Indian. The Incas, like many 
other Indian races, acknowledged a Supreme Being 
who was the creator and ruler of the universe, and 
raised at least one temple in honour of this Being. The 
Deity, however, which seemed to claim the chief ven- 
eration of these Peruvian Indians, was the Sun. To 
him they looked for light, warmth, and protection. 
They reverenced the Sun as the father of their royal 
dynasty, the founder of their Empire, and in almost 
every city and town of the vast Inca realm which swept 
in ancient days through Ecuador, Peru and Chile, tem- 
ples to the Sun arose and altars smoked with the burnt 
offerings to the celestial luminary. 

Connected with this Deity there was also t»he wor- 
ship of the Moon, who was called the sister-wife of the 
Sun; the Stars as attendants of her heavenly train, 
while Venus, who was known to the Peruvians as the 
"Youth with the long and curling locks," was wor- 
shipped as the page or constant attendant of the Sun, 
whom he followed so closely in his rising and his set- 
ting. According to the Incas, the Sun's dread minis- 



344 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

ters were the Thunder and the Lightning, to whom also 
temples were dedicated, as well as to the Rainbow, 
whom the Indians recognised as the beautiful emana- 
tion of their glorious Deity. 

Theirs was a remarkable, and for the most part 
an inoffensive, nature worship, in which th@ Celestial 
luminaries shared with the winds, the earth, the air, 
the rivers and the majestic mountains, in exercising a 
mysterious influence over the destinies of men. Like 
the Buddhists, the Incas also revealed the ability of as- 
similation of the numerous deities of the nations 
which they conquered, the various images of these 
tribes being transported to Cuzco, the Inca capital, and 
their worship supported by the inhabitants of the prov- 
ince from which they were captured. 

The great Peruvian city of temples, pride and won- 
der of the Inca empire, was at Cuzco, upon which 
was showered the largess of the entire extent of the 
land, and which was justly called "The Place of Gold." 
The Temple of the Sun at Cuzco has had few rivals 
in its richness and glorious worship. It stands revealed 
in the vivid picture of Prescott the historian : 

"The interior of the Temple was the most worthy 
of admiration. It was literally a mine of gold. On 
the western wall was emblazoned a representation of 
the Deity, consisting of a human countenance looking 
forth from innumerable rays of light, which emanated 
from it in every direction, in the same manner as the 
Sun is often personified with us. The figure was en- 
graved on a massive plate of gold of enormous dimen- 
sions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious 
stones. It was so situated in front of the great eastern 
portal that the rays of the morning sun fell directly 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 345 

upon it at its rising, lighting up the whole apartment 
with an effulgence that seemed more than natural, and 
which was reflected back from the golden ornaments 
with which the walls and ceilings were everywhere in- 
crusted. 

"Gold, in the figurative language of the people, 
was 'the tears wept by the Sun,' and every part of the 
interior of the Temple glowed with burnished plates 
and studs of the precious metal. The cornices which 
surrounded the wall of the Sanctuary were of the same 
costly material; and a broad belt or frieze of gold let 
into the stone work encompassed the whole exterior 
of the edifice." 



It seemed the irony of conquest that this resplen- 
dent gold image of the Sun, which had looked down 
upon countless generations of worshipping Incas, 
should have been ruthlessly gambled away in a night 
Jby one of the Spanish cavaliers to whom this treasure 
fell as his share of the looted Temple. 

As I wandered through this ancient and renowned 
edifice which now forms the home of the impoverished 
monks of St. Dominic, I was shown not only the sacred 
places where the Sun was worshipped by the Indians, 
but there was also pointed out the place where the 
Moon, the Deity held next in reverence as the mother 
of the Incas, was worshipped, while in other parts of 
the structure were the chapels dedicated to the Stars, 
the Lightning and the Rainbow. This temple, which 
was once the glory of a great race, has now fallen into 
such decay, partaking of the general dilapidation of 
this ancient seat of empire in Cuzco, that the traveller 
must needs call up a vivid imagination to see in its 



346 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

crumbling walls the resplendent centre of the Inca 
religion. 

It has been stated that in addition to this great Tem- 
ple of the Sun in Cuzco, there were between three and 
four hundred additional smaller temples in the Peru- 
vian capital "where every fountain, pathway and wall," 
according to an ancient chronicler, "was regarded as a 
holy mystery." Cuzco to the Peruvian Indian was 
what Mecca is to the Mohammedan, or Benares to the 
Hindu. When it fell, the Inca empire was no more, 
for even the Inca himself was but the great high priest 
who officiated in the House of the Sun in Cuzco. 

The religion of the Incas was in point of fact a re- 
markable religious communism. The most private re- 
cesses of the domestic life were searched out by the 
light of this ancient faith. Every Peruvian, however 
low in station, was reached by the vigilance of the gov- 
ernment, which was also the church in those days.* 
The existence of the individual was merged into that 
of the community. Those under the sway of the Incas 
were religiously responsible to work and to give of 
the products of their labour to the empire and to the 
temple worship. After certain days in which the In- 
dian was engaged in working the lands of the church 
and the Inca, he then was forced to labour a certain 
number of days on the lands of widows and orphans 
who had no one to work for them. This traditional 
custom has made doubtless the conditions of present- 
day Peru more palatable to the Indian than they would 
be otherwise. To-day one finds the general custom 
of parcelling out land to the Indians on the great es- 
tates with the proviso that these workers will give at 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 347 

the request of their landlords such labour as the whole 
estate requires. 

As one visits the Indians of southern Peru and the 
tablelands of the Cordilleras to-day, he is certain to 
ask himself the question whether the later condition 
of these descendants of the original inhabitants of Peru 
has been improved by reason of the introduction of the 
religion of the conquerors. Cuzco, as well as other 
Peruvian cities, is filled with temples of worship, and 
the Indian, especially true to his nature and sentimental 
superstition, is found in considerable numbers in these 
churches. The abject, servile, and seemingly supersti- 
tious awe which one beholds in these real supporters 
of the modern Peru, bowing with their heads touching 
the floors of the modern cathedral, raises a question 
in the mind of the traveller as to the real value of this 
faith to the Peruvian inhabitants. 

One will be told of many incidents now occurring, 
especially in the rural parts of the country, leading one 
to believe that the ancient despotism of the Inca re- 
ligious lords has been transferred to the hands of the 
priests, and that many of the careful and solicitous 
habits of the old Inca nobles in caring for their subjects 
are to-day conspicuous by their absence. The Indian, 
indeed, seems to represent but one value in the eyes of 
the modern Peruvian, simply a means through which 
may be obtained labour free of charge, or money 
earned by the work of a beast of burden, and the 
priests, instead of caring for these helpless children, 
seem to have been from the days of the conquest as- 
sociated intimately with the oppressor. 

The Indian of Peru worships blindly, but he must 



348 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

worship. One Indian when asked where God was, 
said that he was in a certain church, for he had seen 
him there. The religion of Peru in a city like Lima 
is far different than that which one finds in the country 
districts, where a debased Romanism exists, in many 
cases as heathenish as could have been seen in some re- 
mote district or northern hamlet of the Roman em- 
pire, where rude images were worshipped with ruder 
rites by rustics who had half forgotten or never un- 
derstood their original meaning. 

Although in Peru the traveller to-day finds many 
true and worthy adherents to Christianity, the impres- 
sion that deepens in one's mind as he goes from city 
to town and throughout the rural section, is that relig- 
ion has lost its reality and lives to-day all too largely in 
ceremonial and artificial veneer. It needs something 
new and strong and original coming fresh out of the 
heart and souls of men who have seen their God 
through some personal experience ; it needs something 
quite different from blind acceptance of customs and 
the frauds of former Spanish conquerors to save Peru. 
Nature has brought to this country rich stores of op- 
portunity; the question now persists — Is the Peruvian 
of to-day large enough in character to grasp it? As 
yet he seems only capable to touch it with his finger 
tips. 

The trail of the old Spanish conquest still lies across 
the land. The worship of things, rather than the ele- 
vation of spiritual accomplishment, the great dearth of 
men who are willing to drudge if necessary in the mill 
of industry, and forgot some of their old-time Spanish 
gentlemanhood ideas associated with undisciplined and 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 349 

easy existence — these are the dark shadows over the 
new Peru. 

Religion, by whatever name it may be called, pro- 
viding it is real, must bring to these people something 
more than traditional polish or ceremonial rites and 
theology; it must afford them with a compelling and 
deep moral motive, commanding the ideals and the ac- 
tivities of men. Peru needs the old but ever new re- 
ligion founded upon love, and built within the narrow 
walls of a human heart. 

The isolation of Chile, the long "Sliver Republic," 
has had an effect upon its religious life. The outside 
cosmopolitan currents, which have been flowing strongly 
into Argentina and Brazil through immigration and 
sudden advent of commercial enterprise on the part of 
foreigners, have been less marked on the West Coast of 
South America. Chile, like Peru, despite her vigorous 
attempts along military lines to convince the world of 
her modernity, is still religiously mediaeval. The dom- 
inance of the cathedral and the omnipresence of the 
priest are significant of the Roman Catholic Church 
and the religious absolutism with which these two im- 
portant Spanish American countries are still swayed. 

In the progressive material Argentina, the traveller 
is amazed to witness the way that religion has receded 
before the wave of utilitarian progress. The universi- 
ties are proud, not of their ecclesiastical connections, 
but of their rationalism. A prominent professor of the 
University La Plata said recently that he was de- 
voting his life to the eradication from his country of 
religion, which he considered had cursed and re- 
strained his nation's progress. In Brazil we found 



350 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

that the men were not even religious through the in- 
fluence of the women, who have been the devoted cham- 
pions of Catholic institutions in the republics south 
of Panama. Even the women in both of these states 
seem to be losing their adherence to the church, and 
to my question to many of the Argentine and Brazilian 
wives and mothers, "Do you go to church?" the nega- 
tive reply often was given. 

While in Lima or in Santiago, the visitor is first im- 
pressed by the number and the splendour of the 
churches, in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro he almost 
needs a guide to find a church, and the chime of the 
cathedral bells is drowned by the roaring wheels of 
modern industry. 

In Chile, the one hundred and fifty old Spanish 
families, which are said with some truth to rule the 
country, are loyal Catholics. While the men apparently 
are not overzealous religionists, their women are, 
and the feminine element, together with the influence 
of the priestly party, constitutes a force not easy to be 
counteracted. 

We were talking one day with one of the foremost 
lawyers in Chile, a man who had travelled widely in 
the countries of Europe and in the United States. He 
was the counsel for several of the largest foreign firms 
doing business in this republic. He pointed out with 
utter frankness the weakness of Chile's politics and the 
danger of the country in regard to depending too se- 
curely upon its great nitrate industry, thereby cutting 
the nerve of initiative and independent industry on the 
part of the country's youth; but when we came to the 
subject of the church, he remarked: "You must re- 




CATHEDRAL FROM PLAZA, LIMA 










'-:% 





INTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL AREQUIPA 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 351 

member that this is a Catholic country and proud of 
its traditions; we are all loyal to the religion of Chile." 

One soon learns in Chile that there is a clerical party 
in politics, a newspaper controlled by the church, and 
an interweaving of government and ecclesiastical effort 
in many of the leading charitable and social institu- 
tions. It is even within the memory of present-day in- 
habitants that, as the religious processions passed, the 
people kneeled in the street, and it was only fifty years 
ago that a tall board fence was erected before a Prot- 
estant mission church in Valparaiso for fear the very 
sight of an alien meeting house would contaminate the 
people. In the year 1867, Protestant church services 
could be held only in secret, and by issuing cards of in- 
vitation. 

In the Colonial period the Roman church had charge 
of education in Chile; it taught the higher classes in 
mediaeval studies, Latin, mediaeval theology and phil- 
osophy, but this education was not extended to the 
lower classes. To-day it is fashionable and practically 
universal for the old wealthy families to send their 
children to Catholic schools, where the teaching, ac- 
cording to the testimony of many Chileans, is largely 
inferior to that in the foreign schools or in the govern- 
ment schools. Emphasis in these church institutions is 
strongly placed upon religious teaching and the orna- 
mental and literary side of education, the memorising 
method being largely in use and at variance with the 
development of independent thought on the part of 
the pupil. 

General enlightenment ,of all classes is handicapped 
to-day in Chile because of the fact that the govern- 



352 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

ment has concentrated its attention and its appropria- 
tions upon the higher schools, the preparatory institu- 
tions and the university. A fifteen minutes' walk out of 
the city limits of Santiago, the fair Chilean capital, will 
reveal conditions of poverty and ignorance among the 
lower classes of population akin to that to be found in 
the country districts of Peru, where the same tradi- 
tional ideas of indifference toward the education of the 
masses prevail. It is significant that Chile spends less 
than half as much annually for education as does Co- 
lumbia University. 

A modern factor to be considered in noting the tend- 
ency of religion in Chile, is that of the Protestant 
church, through its mission stations, its city churches, 
which are obtaining native pastors, and through its 
schools for both boys and girls, which are growing rap- 
idly in favour among the old Spanish families. 

Thirty years ago there were only two Protestant 
churches in Chile, with but fifty members. To-day 
there are seventy churches of this faith, with 6,000 
communicants and a Protestant attendance and popu- 
lation of 20,000. 

There is government protection for these churches 
to-day, and many of the laws of exemption of ecclesi- 
astical institutions made primarily for the Catholic 
faith alone have been extended to the Protestant bod- 
ies. Musical instruments, like organs, for use in the 
churches established by missionaries are now received 
free from duty. While there is still at times a mild 
type of persecution of the promoters of the Protestant 
faith, especially in the rural districts, cases taken to 
court by the heads of missions, where property has 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 353 

been destroyed or the meetings disturbed by bands 
of irresponsibles, instigated by fanatical priests, are 
usually decided on their merits and with equal justice 
by Catholic judges. 

The newspapers will not receive advertisements 
for Protestant services, but space is given for events 
associated with such bodies as the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, and from my conversations with many 
newspaper editors, I judge that the press is quite as 
liberal in such matters as the people at large, and is 
only restrained by the very powerful influence which 
the Catholic church party exerts through politics and 
the Chilean home. 

The missionaries through their churches have done 
much in the way of inaugurating a temperance move- 
ment in Chile, and have sent broadcast through the 
country millions of pages of temperance propaganda 
with telling effect. In this movement the Protestants 
have received no help from the Roman church, since 
the large holdings of monastic lands of this body are 
supported by wine-producing vineyards, and the farm- 
ers on these lands are strongly in favour of the Catholic 
clerical party. A venerable missionary pastor, who 
came down to Chile more than a quarter of a century 
ago in an old paddle-wheeled boat from Callao, went so 
far as to say that the Catholic church in Chile was built 
on liquor. Although this would be considered a parti- 
san and extreme statement by many, we have been in- 
terested to note that in each case where we have found 
temperance reform measures advocated in South Amer- 
ica, the exponents have not been from the ranks of the 
prevailing state religion. In Argentina temperance 



354 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

agitation has gained considerable headway, led by a 
man whose views are quite inclined toward socialism. 

The writer visited the first theological seminary to 
be founded in Chile to train Chileans to become Protest- 
ant preachers. This institution was recently estab- 
lished as a union church effort, and the heads of several 
foreign mission schools, together with several mission- 
ary pastors, give their time gratis as teachers. 

The building is unpretentious, and the Chileans, who 
hold the Latin American ideas of pretentious edifices 
in which to house their institutions, are said to be al- 
most ashamed to be seen coming out of it, but in this 
handful of Chilean youth which are being trained here 
for Protestant church leadership, the missionaries see 
a far-reaching movement in the strengthening of their 
order. A scholarly Presbyterian pastor, graduate of 
Yale, and carrying on his own church in the city of San- 
tiago, is teaching sixteen hours a week in this first 
Protestant theological school to be founded on the 
West Coast. He seemed to reflect the opinions of 
William Carey, who thought that the establishment of 
his theological school just outside of Calcutta was the 
most important service of his life. 

Among the most important influences affecting the 
tendency of religion in Chile, are the mission schools, 
carried on largely in English and presided over by 
efficient teachers from the United States. 

The Instituto Ingles, founded in 1877, situated in 
Santiago, had as its president Dr. W. E. Browning, a 
Princeton man, and enrols several hundred boys, the 
majority of them from the higher classes of Chileans. I 
visited the dormitories where 100 boys live under sur- 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 355 

roundings resembling those of our best preparatory in- 
stitutions in America, and also witnessed a basketball 
game by these students on their athletic field which gave 
no impression of being mediaeval. 

This flourishing institution draws its students from 
all parts of South America, having twenty-four dif- 
ferent nationalities represented among its boys, and the 
school is self-supporting. The school pays the ex- 
penses of American teachers, young college men who 
come down on three year periods for teaching, and 
many students remain under the influence of this in- 
struction for seven years. The working principle of 
the institution, which is highly regarded in Chile, is thus 
stated by the president, "We never try to prosely- 
tise. We put facts before the boys, and let them decide 
for themselves." As many of the boys come from por- 
tions of this and other republics where the same value 
is not placed upon bathing as in certain parts of the 
world, the president took pride in showing the fine 
swimming pool, which was in popular use. 

The Santiago College for girls is founded on the 
same general principles as the Instituto Ingles, and has 
upwards of 400 young women who are being taught 
entirely in English, which is the chief drawing card. 
This institution, which has been carrying on its ef- 
ficient work in the capital city of Chile for more than 
thirty years, is revealing increasingly the tendency of 
Chilean parents to break away from the traditional 
seclusion for their girls which has held fast the family 
life for generations. The choice of modern methods 
and an institution where a type of religion other than 
that dominant in the country is held, if not aggressively 



356 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

taught, also marks a broader trend of religious tol- 
erance. 

The tendency of the Roman faith in Chile must be 
necessarily toward a more liberal interpretation of its 
creed if it is to survive the expanding life of this vig- 
orous republic. The opening of the Panama Canal 
is only one of the recent modernising influences which 
is affecting this country. Foreign business is coming 
more and more rapidly, and the American is renewing 
the hold which he had in former days upon this land 
so rich in mineral and agricultural possibilities. 

Chile is now in a stage of awakening. She is in a 
transition from an era of absolute authority and insti- 
tutionalism to a state of affairs more nearly resembling 
a true republic. The country has been too highly in- 
stitutionalised to allow of individual development. The 
Catholic church in Chile has been and still is in a 
degree a political social machine. It has been well- 
nigh synonymous with the government, which has 
contributed largely to its support and protected it as 
a national institution whose interests were bound up 
with those of the old ruling families. Even now one 
will be amazed to find the way in which authoritative 
measures rule. If there is need of any social move- 
ment, the government takes it in hand. Even a feast 
or a celebration such as in the United States would be 
initiated by a group of individuals, in Chile is a gov- 
ernment or a church affair. 

The test of a religion is in its results upon the peo- 
ple. The results of the Chilean state religion have been 
to absorb individual initiative, and to stifle the inde- 
pendent religious sense of the citizen — a condition that 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 357 

cannot long exist in a progressing civilisation. The 
Chileans are already becoming restless under a semi- 
oligarchical rule of Church and State. That they will 
sooner or later like Argentina throw off the yoke of 
church authority, separating Church from State, is 
practically certain. Undoubtedly the Roman church 
will adjust itself to the new demands. If not its doom 
is sealed. At any event, as these changes come, there 
will be a period of indifference if not of agnosticism, 
and as in the neighbouring republic across the Andes, 
a cheap and distressing form of infidelity, as the relig- 
ious pendulum swings to the other extreme. 

Constructive education for all classes will help might- 
ily in the years just ahead. Less formal and ceremo- 
nial religion, and more of the religion of character- 
making will be required. As one Chilean said of his 
countrymen, "We are too religious, but not moral 
enough." 

The religion of Chile will be adequate or inade- 
quate for her future needs in accordance as individual 
conscience is aroused, and voluntary personal faith 
takes the place, now held by rigid ecclesiastical au- 
thority. 

Argentina, more than any other South American 
country we have visited, seems to have renounced the 
medieevalism of the South American republics, ex- 
changing it for the most up-to-date modernity. The 
flavour of antiquity found in Peru, Bolivia and Chile 
has been dissipated here by reason of the inflow of 
twentieth-century life from Europe and the United 
States. 

Argentina is a child of the present. Lord Bryce 



358 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

has called her "The United States of the Southern 
Hemisphere." 

This modern difference from the South American re- 
publics on the West Coast is especially noticeable in the 
field of religion. Religiously Argentina makes little 
or no impression upon the visitor. To be sure there 
is a fashion of religious worship here, especially among 
the older families of the "estancia" class. Roman 
Catholicism is also declared by the Constitution of the 
republic to be supported by the State and the President 
and Vice-President are required to profess this faith. 
There are, however, no strictures placed upon any 
other form of religious worship, such as are found in 
Peru, for example; there is no political party allied 
with the clergy and the influence of the priests is not 
felt to any extent in the realm of politics. 

One gets the impression before remaining long in 
this exceedingly progressive and materialistic atmos- 
phere that the men of the country regard generally the 
Catholic church as one of the remains of an old Span- 
ish world. It is a creation of the past, and to that ex- 
tent, interesting, and to be retained as a traditional ac- 
companiment of other institutions, but having little 
relation to daily life and conduct. As one Argentine 
put it, "We are quite willing that the church exists so 
long as it does not interfere with business and politics." 

The theology of the Roman organisation is almost 
a dead letter in the minds of the educated classes, and 
the priests, who rule the people of the West Coast of 
South America by making them more or less blindly 
submissive to the rites and ceremonies of another cen- 
tury, are failing quite completely to hold the new for- 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 359 

ward-looking spirit of Argentina. The old fiery vigour 
and pious devotion of the early Conquistadores, who 
brought with their adventurous love of gold certain 
outward marks of piety at least, are conspicuous by 
their absence in this atmosphere of newness and utili- 
tarian progress. 

The deities which are worshipped primarily in the 
beautiful and ostentatious capital of Buenos Aires, are 
pleasure and money. Other terms for these are horse 
racing and the activities connected with the great cattle- 
raising industry on the old "estancias." There is, to be 
sure, a certain amount of civic idealism, for the Por- 
tenos, as the inhabitants of Buenos Aires are styled, 
are outdone by none in their pride of municipal im- 
provements; but here idealism seems to end. As for 
religious or spiritual aims, the United States, where 
the worldly gods are also worshipped devotedly, re- 
veals far more the tendency to build habitations for the 
dwellings of the spirit and religion. This may be due 
to the fact that the first settlers who came to the shores 
of New England were impelled hither by ideas and 
ideals quite different from those that actuated the early 
Spanish pioneers to South America; it may be due also 
to the fact that Argentina is at present in a transition 
stage and the dazzling of her new wealth has caused 
her for the moment to forget that the spiritual needs 
of a people require satisfaction. 

Surely at present one finds few indications that would 
lead one to believe that Argentina was giving herself 
any concern regarding the condition of her religious 
life. 

The result of this indifference is apparent in many 



360 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

directions. The lack of any personal acquaintance with 
the Bible is patent. 

A prominent journal of Buenos Aires began recently 
to print quotations from the Bible in its columns with- 
out giving the source. Shortly after a letter was re- 
ceived from a gentleman in another city of the re- 
public who evidently had some degree of education, 
asking the editor from what book these quotations 
were taken and inquiring where he could secure a copy 
of a book containing such illuminating and helpful 
ideas. The paper continued these quotations from the 
Scriptures and the readers of the journal have become 
particularly interested in the discovery of a literature 
which heretofore has been almost entirely unknown to 
many of them. This is a reminder of the fact, 
which is brought home vividly to those who travel in 
the republics on the West Coast, that the Spanish 
American republic received a Catholicism from Spain 
and Portugal which was guided almost entirely by the 
clergy who studied their Bibles in Latin and closed 
them almost impregnably to the laity. 

Among the students of this republic, I found a simi- 
lar lamentable ignorance regarding the Christian Scrip- 
tures. A friend of mine went with a student to his 
steamer as the young man was about to sail for Eu- 
rope. The Argentine student had in his hand a copy 
of Victor Hugo, portions of which, he declared, he had 
formed the habit of reading each night before retiring, 
as a means of literary and spiritual stimulation. My 
friend who had a Testament in his pocket suggested 
that the student should make the experiment of read- 
ing parts of the Gospel in like manner. To his amaze- 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 361 

ment he found that the student had never as much as 
opened the Bible, but was destined to get absolutely 
his first impression of this remarkable literature in 
reading this New Testament on his steamer voyage. 

Lecky has said, "The record of three choice years 
of the active life of Jesus has done more to regenerate 
and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philos- 
ophers and all the exploitations of moralists." To 
appreciate that the youth of one of the most promising 
nations should be at present in almost blank ignorance 
of a book which has so deeply influenced human civili- 
sation, is certainly a pathetic experience. 

As a matter of fact the students, six hundred in num- 
ber, of the University of Buenos Aires, furnish a field 
for labour along religious lines. These students are 
scattered throughout a large pleasure-loving and ma- 
terialistic city rarely under any supervision or moral 
control. While they have turned their backs upon the 
Catholic religion of the country because of its obscur- 
antism and bigotry, they have as yet found no positive 
faith to take its place. They have put off the old with- 
out taking on new religious beliefs and are ready disci- 
ples to rationalism and agnosticism and also to social- 
istic and anarchistic tendencies, all of which are not 
foreign to the thought and activities of the educated 
portion of Argentina's inhabitants. 

The professors in the higher institutions of learning 
are one with the students in their disregard of religion 
of any kind. It is a well known fact that the teachers 
openly teach agnosticism and rationalism in their 
classes. The tide of indifference and even antagonism 
to constructive religious faith has risen so high in this 



362 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

country that we find men like the Vice-Rector of 
La Plata University warning his countrymen concern- 
ing the effect which this type of thinking is sure to have 
upon the character of the country's youth. 

"It is with great sadness," said this Vice-Rector in 
one of his recent opening addresses of the college year, 
"that I witness the steady decrease in the number of 
unselfish, idealistic, genuine men; how engulfing the 
tide of selfishness, of rebellion, of indiscipline, and of 
insatiable ambition; impunity so commonly supplants 
justice that I fear for the spiritual future of the land 
of my children, unless we make haste to remedy the 
great evil, which is disregard for the noble, and the 
great and unmeasured lust for material riches." 

One of the teachers in the university told me that 
the immigrant coming to Argentina with his Old 
World custom of worship, loses almost entirely his 
religion after he has been in the country for two or 
three years. We were surprised to find that here, con- 
trary to the conditions found in every one of the re- 
publics west of the Andes, the women representing the 
educated classes, at least, have very little interest in re- 
ligion, and the majority of them will tell you that they 
never go to church. The Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation, which enrols a thousand members in Buenos 
Aires, seventy-five per cent of whom are Argentines, 
has not been able to get hold religiously of the edu- 
cated men, and the secretaries will tell you that this 
forms one of the most discouraging features of their 
work. Plans are now shaping to give particular atten- 
tion to the crying spiritual needs of these students, and 
an Argentine secretary of advanced education and 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 363 

training both in Europe and in the United States has 
been engaged to devote his time exclusively to the far- 
reaching work of acquainting the Argentine university 
men, in a personal way, with the Protestant faith. 

Among the old families there is a certain fashion of 
church attendance which is not unconnected with social 
prestige. The Catholic church also is showing signs 
of modern adaptation and of adjusting itself to the 
spirit of the twentieth century in a way that would be 
scarcely possible in certain of the more strict Catholic 
republics. For example, I attended a large meeting 
of boy scouts in the cathedral in Buenos Aires. 

A common usage among fashionable people, linking 
them to the church, is the holding of a choral mass 
on the anniversary of the death of a relative. Invi- 
tations are sent to all of the friends of the family and 
the social acquaintances, the church is most elaborately 
decorated, and the event takes on the atmosphere of a 
social function. It can be indulged in only by the 
wealthy, as the cost is great. 

Among the foreign institutions that are doing good 
work in stemming the tide of religious indifference, are 
the mission schools conducted by foreigners, the Amer- 
ican Church, which has a strong hold upon a wide circle 
of English and American residents, and a number of 
private educational efforts like the Instituto Ward, 
where commercial education is given to a goodly num- 
ber of boys, many of whom are sons of the wealthy 
landholders. 

We were interested in visiting this latter institution 
to find among the teachers an ex-Catholic priest who 
had embraced Protestant Christianity and was most de- 



364 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

voted to his work of teaching Catholic boys. He in- 
formed us that he believed that there were many priests 
of the Roman church who would gladly leave that 
faith to-day in this country if they could find anything 
else to do in order to earn a living. The character of 
their training had been almost entirely along ecclesias- 
tical and unpractical lines and when they sought em- 
ployment outside the church or monastery, they found 
themselves practically helpless. The condition is 
stated as follows : 

"The loss of persecuting power and prestige by the 
established church, the extension of education, com- 
mercial relations, contact with foreigners and acquain- 
tance with us and our work, have replaced suspicion 
with confidence. There is some awakening to the fact 
that the needs of the people religiously have not been 
met. This field is absolutely open for evangelical 
work in all parts, provided it is carried on with suffi- 
cient means and in a sufficiently dignified way to de- 
mand respect, but the work must be of an increasingly 
higher grade, more thoroughly educational and scien- 
tific, and with churches and schools of adequate im- 
portance and equipment to command respect in lands 
where public buildings are always noteworthy. On the 
other hand the growth of indifference and irreligion 
has been so rapid that there is a large class of the more 
highly educated people entirely inaccessible to the Gos- 
pel message under present conditions." 

Those who would help this "Amazing Argentina" 
of to-day must approach her with the realisation that 
they will find in this republic an exhibition of external 
materialism that combines the worship of pleasure 
found in Paris with the devotion to money-getting 



THE RELIGION OF SOUTH AMERICANS 365 

seen in the most utilitarian sections of the United 
States. They will find here a people alert, intellectual 
and ready for every new thing in science, in education 
and in the fine arts of life. It is a people that have 
had their fill of ceremonial religion, which has not satis- 
fied the cravings of either the intellect or the soul. 
In few countries is there a more insistent need for a 
religion that reveals itself in character. The reaction 
time from all this lust of the world and the pride of 
life is already beginning to be evident in Argentina. 
He who can help her in the discovery of a new and sat- 
isfying religious idealism will be her lasting friend. 



CHAPTER XXV 

SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 

The world is founded on thoughts and ideas, not on cotton 
and iron. — Emerson. 

N speaking with a teacher in the one normal school 
for men in Peru, situated in Lima, I asked, "What 
would you do if you had the power to advance edu- 
cational interests in Peru?" 

He answered, "I would advocate having the gov- 
ernment send fifty students a year for five or ten years 
to the United States to receive thorough training, espe- 
cially in scientific education; this in order that they 
might come back as teachers and heads of technical in- 
stitutions to lead a new systematic educational move- 
ment along practical, modern lines." 

As a matter of fact I found that the teacher who 
gave me this answer, with three other men, had been in 
the United States in prominent institutions and had re- 
turned to their country expecting to take certain execu- 
tive educational positions where they would have the 
opportunity of wielding certain influence. On the con- 
trary these men, with one exception, were placed in 
small schools in the country and were looked upon with 
suspicion by the Peruvians, who considered that they 

366 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 36Ti 

represented new and radical ideas not in line with Peru- 
vian conditions. 

If there had been several hundred of these men in- 
stead of four, they, would have been able, undoubtedly, 
to have impressed their ideas and to have formed a 
leaven for a real organised system of national educa- 
tion, which the country lacks at present. 

The normal school to which reference is made con- 
tains, as I found by investigation, eighty-five teachers, 
and these teachers give instruction to several hundred 
pupils in model schools, where the teachers are given 
their practice. It is a government school, like virtu- 
ally all the higher institutions of learning in Peru, and 
the normal teachers receive forty-five dollars a month 
with little opportunity for advancement in salary. Free 
tuition and board are given to the prospective teachers, 
who come from different parts of the country. 

In addition to this normal school for boys there are 
three normal schools for girls in Peru, one in Lima, 
one in Arequipa, and one in Cuzco. These latter schools 
are carried on by nuns, although paid by the state. 

It must be remembered that the church schools in 
Peru educate the boys and girls of the aristocratic fam- 
ilies, and no one above the labouring class would think 
of sending his son or daughter for primary education to 
schools other than those carried on by the Catholic 
church. Some of these schools are said to be very 
good ones, but the predominance of religious teaching 
narrows the curriculum, and when the students of these 
schools enter the colleges, or what we would call the 
higher preparatory schools, or begin their study of 
law, medicine and engineering in the various depart- 



368 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

ments of the university, they are said to under- 
go a severe wrench in their mental point of view, the 
young men usually inclining towards an agnostic po- 
sition. 

One progressive Peruvian in speaking of these 
church schools said rather frankly: 

"These institutions are helping to keep Peru in the 
benighted condition of Europe in the Middle Ages." 

The progressives in relation to Peruvian education 
believe that there must be a more decisive separation 
between education and politics before great progress 
can be made. At present the politicians who control 
education are responsible for this department along 
with two or three other political departments, and they 
are often ignorant even of the location of the schools 
for which they are responsible. It is necessary to have 
political influence in order to get a position as teacher 
or even to obtain the scholarship that admits a student 
to membership in the normal schools of the country. 

Furthermore, the appointees of the department of 
education are supposed to be the political henchmen 
as well as teachers for the government in power, and 
it is the natural tendency for the head of education to 
appoint teachers who can be depended upon for 
political service. 

A recent attempt has been made to bring over teach- 
ers from France, Germany and Belgium. I found a 
dozen or more German teachers in the Collegio Na- 
cional de Guadaloupe, the chief high school of Lima. 
None of these teachers, however, are intimately ac- 
quainted with the country or the point of view of the 
people and the chief aim of each one of these instruc- 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 369 

tors seemed to be to inaugurate in the school his na- 
tional system of education, quite regardless of whether 
or not it fits the condition of the country. 

There is special need at present in Peru for an or- 
ganised educational system dividing the country into 
districts and placing over them competent heads. This 
is especially necessary for the Indians who compose at 
least two million of the three and one half million in- 
habitants of Peru. At present comparatively little 
along educational lines is being done for these people, 
while the alcohol of the white man is being the means 
of their deterioration. To be sure, the Catholic 
church is doing some work among the Indians and has 
schools for them in certain districts, but I was unable 
to find indication of any training worth the name in 
industrial arts and along practical lines of agriculture 
and manual training so necessary for the Indian. These 
Indians are both active and also industrious, and they 
only need guidance and schools fitted to their require- 
ments to make them important factors in the develop- 
ment of the country districts of Peru. It is said that 
five per cent of the general income of Peru is supposed 
to go for education, or a total of $1,500,000. It would 
seem a matter of strategic foresight to expend im- 
mediately a goodly percentage of this amount for the 
industrial training of the Indians, especially in the 
light of the enlarging commercial possibilities of the 
country in such industries as cotton, sugar, agricultural 
products and mining. 

The college in Peru is hardly what the term signi- 
fies in the United States. These institutions are little 
more than high schools or preparatory schools to the 



370 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

university, which in turn corresponds more nearly to 
our professional schools. 

The Collegio Nacional de Guadaloupe contains 
seven hundred students, with boarding facilities to ac- 
commodate three hundred and fifty students. It is a 
government institution, and the excellent plant is said 
to have cost $1,500,000. It is built somewhat on the 
plan of the European universities, with courts or patios 
in the centre, giving good light and air. The buildings 
are of brick and the gardens are filled with flowers and 
palms. The course consists of four years, and the 
training is in the hands of teachers, European and Pe- 
ruvian, comparing favourably with those in preparatory 
institutions in the United States or Europe. 

A visit to Lima is incomplete without a study of the 
old University of San Marcos, founded by Spanish 
friars in the reign of Charles V, on May 12th, 155 1. 
This university contains departments for law, science, 
medicine, and letters, the departments of law and let- 
ters being by far the most popular. I asked a large 
number of men what they considered to be the ruling 
ideals of Peruvian students as they were found in the 
high schools and the university. The answer, almost 
invariably, was : "They want to be politicians." 

The university course at San Marcos ranges from 
five to seven years, and covers more ground than is 
usually attempted in our professional schools in the 
United States. In fact, it would seem that the attempt 
is made to cover too much ground theoretically and 
not to give sufficient attention to the practical applica- 
tion of certain fundamental principles. . 

There are at present about three hundred students 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 371 

studying at the main university. These students are 
not possessed with college spirit, and anything like col- 
lege "yells," songs, or student fraternities are virtu- 
ally unknown to them; one student who had studied in 
the "States" said to me: "I never heard the word alma 
mater used by any student in Peru." 

Although the examinations are said to be rather stiff, 
the college course is spread over so long a period that 
there is ample opportunity for students to engage in 
other occupation. There are rarely more than two 
lectures a day for each student to attend, and only four 
or five courses during the entire year. One university 
student, with whom I talked, in addition to keeping up 
his lectures at the university, holds two positions in two 
other schools of the city where he teaches; he also tu- 
tors the sons of one of the officials. One young man, 
who was the regular newspaper reporter on one of the 
leading dailies, told me that he also was a student at 
the university, where he was studying law. 

One does not find among these students any such 
thing as self-supporting work in order to secure a col- 
lege course. Nothing for example like the waiting on 
tables at a college boarding house or the caring for 
a furnace, or the doing of a score of things which the 
American student is often eager to do in order to sup- 
port himself through college. This would be so much 
against the custom of these Peruvian students that the 
youth would immediately lose caste amongst his fel- 
lows. One is told that even the carrying of a bundle 
of bco.1 ;? is considered by students as below their dig- 
nity. 

Among the most important and efficient institutions 



372 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

visited in Peru were the Technical School and the 
School of Arts and Trades in Lima. These schools 
are directly along the line of Peru's present needs, and 
in addition to their courses of training toward the end 
of making efficient mining and electrical engineers and 
trained commercial agents, these institutions are as- 
sisting the government in many useful researches and 
experiments. 

The University of Cuzco, which is one of the most 
interesting institutions in Peru, was founded in the 
sixteenth century, and enrols at present two hundred 
students. The students are studying chiefly in two de- 
partments, law and letters, the study of law being by 
far the most popular. 

Situated on the old cathedral Plaza and attached to 
one of the ancient churches of the Spanish colonial 
period, to which there is said to be an underground 
passage to the cathedral next door, this old university 
breathes the air of other days. Across the entrance 
within the first court the visitor reads the words 

"LIBERTAD. IQUALIDAD FRATERNADAD." 

It would seem at first that this motto was incon- 
sistent with the authoritative religious intolerance of 
the church, with which this old Jesuit building was 
so closely connected. But upon further inquiry and 
study of the situation one finds here a body of stu- 
dents and professors who, as a whole, are probably 
more free from religious domination of any sort than 
any similar body to be found in the United States. 

"Have you any religious teaching in the univer- 




A CLASS IN AN AMERICAN GIRLS SCHOOL IN SANTIAGO 




AN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, SAO PAULO 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 373 

sity?" I asked of the American Rector, Dr. Alberto 
A. Giesecke, a graduate of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. 

"No," was the decided reply of the rector, "the 
students would not endure the introduction of any re- 
ligious teaching, and should they be willing, the pro- 
fessors would veto it immediately. Our students are 
for the most part indifferent to the Catholic church or 
to any religion and would probably be called free 
thinkers, if not agnostic." 

Indeed, it was not long ago that this ancient town 
of the Incas was thrown into considerable excitement 
by reason of a fight between the students of the uni- 
versity and the priests when the attempt was made by 
the university men to set fire to one of the churches, 
the disturbance being calmed only after the soldiers 
were called out. Virtually any student with whom one 
talks will hasten to say that the university stands for 
modern science and academic learning at the present 
day. It is a type of education centuries removed from 
that practised by the church teachers in the religious 
schools. 

The support of the university is by the government 
and the fees of the students, the government contrib- 
uting only about $500 a month, with an occasional 
$2,000 as a special appropriation for extra improve- 
ments. 

The cost of matriculation per student is $15 per 
year, the fee for examination is $12.50 a year, while 
the degrees for bachelor and doctor cost $50 and $80 
respectively. To the average Peruvian student, who 



374 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

is proverbially poor, these sums represent an expen- 
sive education. 

The teachers in the university are paid $50.00 a 
month, but this does not represent their entire income, 
as the majority of the professors are either lawyers 
or doctors who carry on individual practice outside of 
school hours. They devote on the average only six 
hours a week to teaching students. In the University 
of Cuzco we found upon the faculty ten lawyers, two 
physicians, and four professors who devoted their en- 
tire time to teaching. As a consequence of the lack of 
devoting their entire time to teaching as a specialty, 
the devotion and punctuality of the professors to their 
academic tasks leave much to be desired, and there 
have been frequent complaints by the students of the 
need of attention to their duties on the part of the 
faculty. 

In 1 9 10 there occurred a serious strike of the stu- 
dents of Cuzco which resulted in closing the university 
for nearly a year. The rector showed me holes in 
the walls of the faculty room which were the result of 
a small riot on the part of the students, who appeared 
in force with pistols while the faculty was in session, 
firing not only blank cartridges but literally "shooting 
up" the hall where the teachers were having a confer- 
ence. As an additional sign of their impatience at the 
way the faculty was conducting the institution, the stu- 
dents placed a large can in the middle of the floor of 
the faculty room marked in large letters "dynamite." 
A long fuse was attached to the can which was lighted 
as the students departed. It is needless to say that the 
faculty also departed with more haste than dignity, 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 375 

and for fear of further outbreak by the students an 
order was given to close the university, and from the 
seventh of May, 1909, to March, 19 10, the University 
of Cuzco presented locked doors. 

The building and customs of this ancient institution 
are far more indicative of a mediaeval university than 
any place of learning one would visit in many a day. 
There is almost an utter absence of comfort, no heat- 
ing arrangements whatever, although the university is 
situated 12,500 feet above sea level, and the tempera- 
ture in the rooms at the time of our visit was never 
above 55 ° or 6o°. The rooms are high, dismal 
and cheerless, and the pictures upon the walls remind 
one of old thirteenth century days. There is a museum 
connected with the institution filled with some remains 
of "the old Inca civilisation, and the gloomy, ill-kept 
surroundings add to the deadness of the place. The 
library of 3,000 volumes is composed chiefly of books 
in Spanish and there is a decided lack of up-to-date liter- 
ature. One of the teachers pointed out the sociological 
department, with the somewhat doubtful complimen- 
tary descriptive comment, 

"This department is considered better even than the 
one at Lima, but at Lima this department amounts to 
practically nothing." 

The whole place is filled with cheerlessness and gives 
the impression of the saddest scenes of "delightful 
studies" we have ever visited. 

A mitigating value of the institution is suggested to 
the visitor, who is told that according to a well authen- 
ticated old Jesuit manuscript, there is buried somewhere 
beneath the floors of this ancient building treasure 



376 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

amounting to $11,000,000. Yet there seems to be 
no particular interest or desire on the part of the stu- 
dents or faculty to discover this treasure which would 
be the means of converting their institution into a 
Peruvian Harvard as far as a rich endowment is con- 
cerned. I asked why efforts had not been put forth 
to discover this treasure. It was answered that such 
efforts would at once cause a disturbance that would 
close again the university. It was another indication 
of the fact that while the Peruvian will tell you that 
he is eager for the introduction of modern improve- 
ments and to come into touch with the life of the 20th 
century, he is nevertheless possessed with a kind of 
passive incompetence and conservatism. He does not 
seem to possess initiative himself, and his traditions 
have led him to place barriers almost unsurmountable 
in the way of any one else who would be progressive. 
A further indication of the medievalism regnant 
here is the degree day. It was my privilege to be 
present during a part of the examination of one of the 
Cuzco students for his doctor's degree. This exami- 
nation lasted two days, and it impressed me as being 
a most thorough affair. The student occupied a high 
pulpit seat at the side of the faculty room, while on 
either side of the chamber were rows of professors, 
the rector and his associate sitting at the head of the 
room. The remainder of the examination hall was 
filled with students and with any members of the public 
who desired to attend. When the long oral examina- 
tion was over and the student had read his thesis, time 
was given for the objectors to ply him with questions. 
At the end of this exercise the degree was conferred, 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 377 

and the friends of the student who had been waiting 
outside came forward carrying wreaths of flowers 
with which they bedecked the young doctor, a band 
began to play and start the procession through the 
streets, and in the wake of the band marched the stu- 
dent and his friends, members of his family and ad- 
mirers, while young girls threw rose leaves along the 
way of this triumphant apostle of Cuzco learning. 
The end of this exercise, which represented a period 
of seven years' study in the university on the part of 
the student, was celebrated by a feast, given at the 
young doctor's home. After this formal and interest- 
ing occurrence, the young man was ready to open his 
office as a lawyer and perhaps to have a part among 
the faculty as teacher, or if he was a young man of 
means and found it unnecessary to work, he was con- 
sidered henceforth as occupying a dignified gentleman's 
position in the town with the possibility of holding some 
official position. 

One looks in vain in this university for marks of 
modernity seen in the student life of the universities of 
the United States or Europe. When I asked about 
athletics I was shown a paved tennis court in one of 
the patios of the university where it is said some of the 
students and the teachers play tennis at times. During 
our stay, however, we failed to see any indication of 
the use of this court. There seems to be no student 
organisation and few if any games, like football, base- 
ball or cricket, which give colour and youthful enthusi- 
asm to the university in the north. 

Here, as in many of the schools of Peru, there would 
seem to be a decided need of a fresh point of view con- 



378 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

cerning modern ways and methods of education, as 
practised in Europe and in North America. To be 
sure, some students have been sent from this section 
for study in the United States. According to the testi- 
mony of the most alert teachers here, too many of these 
students have found their way to smaller Catholic in- 
stitutions in the "States," where the viewpoint has been 
similar to that of their early training in their own 
country, and where little indication of the advance and 
progressive learning of the large universities has 
reached them. They return, as I am told, quite as 
bigoted and intolerant as they were before they went 
regarding up-to-date methods of life and study in the 
universities. 

The great need is to get these students in their for- 
eign study into touch with our larger and more liberal- 
minded universities where they will learn some of the 
things which are most needed in Peru to-day. Among 
those influences which the university student of Peru 
needs especially to-day is a sense of the true dignity of 
labour. 

Another value which the Peruvian student needs and 
would naturally receive from a foreign university, in 
addition to his broadened point of view of study, would 
be the practice of out-of-door sports and the develop- 
ment consequent upon the exercises of student organi- 
sation and student government, in both of which 
functions the student of Peru at present is deficient. 
There is also a great need for well trained students in 
practical and technical institutions, in a country so rich 
in agricultural and mineral resources. As a matter 
of fact, it is difficult to find any advanced work being 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 379 

done in this part of Peru by native Peruvians. All 
the mines and large farms which show any indication 
of modern efficiency and activity are in the hands of 
foreigners. 

I can think of nothing which would seem to be of 
more importance at present in this region of the old 
Inca civilisation than the establishment by the Peruvian 
government, in connection with such a university as 
Cuzco, of a flourishing agricultural department with 
a big experimental farm in connection therewith. 
Here experts from other countries could be secured to 
develop scientific Peruvian farmers from the ranks of 
the best families. The work upon these farms could 
be accomplished by the Indians who live upon these 
vast estates, numbering frequently thousands of acres, 
but which are now cultivated in the most primitive 
fashion and only wait for modern machinery and scien- 
tific enterprise to yield at least one hundred times the 
product now being realised from them. A big mining 
school or a work shop similar to the famous Boulac 
shops of Cairo, where the young Egyptians are learning 
by means of "the hammer and the hand," would fairly 
revolutionise conditions in these isolated regions which 
at present are less advanced than when the ancient 
Incas and their predecessors lived among these his- 
toric mountains. Unless some such advance can be 
brought about up here on the tablelands of the Sierras, 
we can see no great promise of a new Peru. 

The educational system of Chile dates practically 
from the Declaration of Independence. The colonial 
period gave to Chile only a few schools of elementary 
grade which were carried on largely for the wealthy 



380 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

families, while convent schools gave instruction of the 
various religious orders in Latin, philosophy and the- 
ology. Students who wished to proceed further to- 
ward a literary or scientific degree in a university were 
obliged to go to the University of San Marcos at Lima. 
In the middle of the eighteenth century, however, a 
university was founded at Santiago and dedicated to 
San Felipe in honour of King George V. The Jesuits 
were expelled in 1767, and the colonial government 
gave somewhat more careful attention to the founda- 
tion of public instruction, and certain primary schools 
were founded in Santiago. The revolutionary move- 
ment of 1 8 10 was led by men who aspired to a com- 
plete system of education on European lines and in 
1 8 12 the first newspaper was established and Chilean 
schools were founded for women as well as for men. 
It was not, however, until the adoption of the Consti- 
tution in 1833 that the present system of education on 
a large scale and according to scientific principles came 
into being. It was then that scholars from various 
countries of Europe were invited to assist the govern- 
ment, and famous scholars came to Chile and wrought 
a work of transformation and progress. 

It was in 1829 that the first Spanish-American 
man of letters, Andres Bello, a Venezuelan born in 
Caracas, who had studied in England, was called to 
Santiago to give his services to the intellectual develop- 
ment of the country. One of the results was that in 
1839 the old University of San Felipe with its monastic 
system of education was abolished by formal decree, 
and Andres Bello was made the first rector of the new 
University of Chile. New buildings were erected and 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 381 

a new era of independence of thought and learning for 
Chile was born. This new university was formally 
organised in Santiago in 1842, and in 1879 its statutes 
were amended in the form in which they exist to-day. 

To-day one finds here at the Chilean university eight 
faculties — law, political science, engineering, pedagogy, 
medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and architecture, includ- 
ing altogether approximately fifteen hundred students. 

The law school is by far the largest in the university, 
comprising 480 students with 45 professors and in- 
structors, and extending over a course of five years. 
As in other South American states this course includes 
the liberal arts course as well as the preparation for 
the study of law, and fifty per cent of the graduates do 
not become lawyers, but devote themselves to teaching, 
journalism, public administration and politics. Many 
of the instructors and professors are foreigners, and 
a large number have taken post graduate study in for- 
eign countries. 

The first primary school was. opened in Santiago in 
1 8 13 and at present there are more than twenty-five 
hundred such schools in Chile attended by at least 
220,000 children, in buildings of which 385 are owned 
by the government, 1839 being rented, and 281 pro- 
vided by the patrons of the schools. 

Children may enter the primary schools at the age 
of five years, and many pass to the high schools after 
reaching the age of ten, which is the minimum age at 
which any one may enter. The system is compulsory, 
although it is difficult here, as in Peru, to maintain 
strict compulsory attendance in many parts of the coun- 
try districts. 



382 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

There are sixteen training colleges or normal schools 
all of which have been founded and are administered 
by the state. Six of these colleges are for men and 
ten for women. The course of instruction lasts five 
years and the state provides training, board, lodg- 
ing and text books free of charge. The teachers in 
return for these advantages are required to remain in 
the service of the state for at least a minimum period 
of seven years. It is interesting to note that French 
has been replaced by English as a subject of instruc- 
tion in most of the women's training colleges, a further 
indication of the sympathy which one finds throughout 
Chile for English instruction. The effect of this is 
seen in all departments of life, especially in the great 
cities, where the majority of the leading men and 
women can speak at least a little English. 

Secondary education has advanced rapidly in the 
last twenty years and the liceos now number forty for 
boys and thirty-eight for girls, giving education to 
13,172 boys and 7,266 girls. 

The secondary schools for boys are under the direc- 
tion of the University of Santiago, while the schools 
for girls are administered directly by the state. The 
visitor notices that considerable attention is given to 
civic education and also that seven Englishmen figure 
among the teachers who are in charge of the boys' 
liceos and nineteen English women are teachers in the 
girls' preparatory schools. 

The majority of the non-Chilean teachers seemed to 
be of Teuton nationality. 

The attention given to the training of teachers is 
also seen in the secondary institutions in the training 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 383 

college, El Institute* Pedagogico, where a four years' 
course of instruction is given. This is the only state 
school in which Latin is taught. This school was 
founded in 1890, and both men and women are ad- 
mitted, the women outnumbering the men in the pro- 
portion of three to one. This is due largely to the 
poor pay which is given to teachers, which has driven 
men into other professions as well as to the fact that 
in Chile it has not been traditionally the custom for 
women to enter the wage-earning field. 

Co-education is not permitted in the public schools 
beyond the second grade, but in the higher colleges of 
education it is gradually becoming common. 

There is a manual training school in Santiago which 
should be duplicated in other parts of Chile, the mod- 
els of education being taken largely from Swedish 
patterns. 

Although an agricultural school has existed in San- 
tiago since 1866, it was not until 1885 that European 
professors were engaged for schools of this character 
in five of the other Chilean cities. European influence 
is seen in these technical schools, for it is to Europe 
that students have been sent very largely for instruc- 
tion. 

In a country of great agricultural possibilities like 
Chile, the Talco agricultural school especially furnishes 
a type of great practical example, not only for Chile 
but for every South American republic. This institu- 
tion aims to train practical specialists, stock raisers, 
butter and cheese-makers, silk-culturists, wine-growers, 
bee-farmers, and horticulturists, and the buildings and 
appliances are all arranged to take these subjects out 



384 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

of theory into practice. The introduction of the Dutch 
breed of cattle raising and dairy farming is notable, 
while one is impressed with the number of text-books 
and pamphlets published by the professors of these 
institutions. 

There are schools for mining in three cities, and in 
Santiago the school is more properly a technical col- 
lege, attended by young mechanics who are lodged and 
boarded by the state for two years. In some of these 
schools the students work in the neighbouring mines 
under the direction of the superintendent and in line 
with the ordinary mining regime. 

There are several good industrial training schools 
for men and a school of arts and crafts, with two hun- 
dred and fifty pupils, and an installation of machinery 
valued at $280,000. This latter school is being of 
great help to the country in developing capable and 
educated heads of workshops and men versed in the 
mechanical arts and electricity. 

There are also in various parts of the country twenty- 
nine technical colleges for women, where girls are 
trained for commercial positions and in various arts 
like glove-making, basket-weaving, cookery, dress- 
making, carving, clock-repairing, sewing, embroidery 
and artificial flower making. These schools are espe- 
cially intended for fitting students for instruction in the 
ordinary schools, and classes of theory and education 
are added. 

Add to these technical institutions a series of schools 
and societies along scientific, literary and educational 
lines in astronomy, meteorology, botany, and the vari- 
ous museums of natural science and industrial libraries 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 385 

and institutes, and one is inclined to give just praise 
to the Chileans for the time and attention afforded to a 
symmetrical system of educational training. It is no 
more than fair to say that the foreigners, especially the 
Germans and the English, have been of invaluable as- 
sistance in the establishment and the development of 
these various branches of learning of which Chile is 
naturally proud, and which are giving to this vigorous 
and progressive country an intelligent stability. 

The term student life connotes something quite dif- 
ferent in the Argentine republic than we in the United 
States are accustomed to associate with that phrase. 
The students of Argentina, although they are the re- 
cipients of exceptional advantages of free education, 
twenty-five million dollars being set aside in the gov- 
ernment budget for education in a recent year, lack 
many of the privileges which the American students 
would be loath to forego. 

The university student, for example, has little of 
that experience known as corporate college life in the 
United States. Intercollegiate athletic sports, stu- 
dent-initiated societies and "college spirit" are scarcely 
known among Argentine collegiates. 

The absence of the dormitory in connection with stu- 
dent life in the higher grades has been doubtless a 
factor in reducing to a minimum the associated life 
and spirit of student existence as these receive expres- 
sion in the universities and colleges of the United 
States. In the city of Buenos Aires (where students 
come from throughout the country, as do all other 
kinds of inhabitants, as to a magnetic pole of interest) 
the youth are scattered in boarding houses throughout 



386 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

the wide expanse of the Capital, and are almost as ig- 
norant of one another's lives and conditions as is the 
case in our graduate schools in a big American city. 
In certain instances, indeed, one comes upon students 
living together in conditions resembling the Latin 
Quarter in Paris. It is sufficient to say that these social 
groups do not make especially for the best moral con- 
ditions. Dr. Alberto Nin Frias, a careful student of 
life in the university of Argentina, remarked: 

"The inner life of the student shows lack of social 
purpose, lawlessness, and the spirit of each for him- 
self." 

The arrangement of the studies, in the courses of 
higher education especially, are such as to increase the 
likelihood of idleness on the part of the student during 
the term period, for one finds that much of the work 
of these students is crowded into a few days previous 
to the examination period. 

The teachers of Argentine students, as is the case in 
many another South American republic, are too fre- 
quently professional men who devote only a few hours 
a week to their academic work and have little or no 
knowledge of the students personally. The idea of 
friendship between the student and the professor seems 
to be quite foreign to the experience of Argentine 
student youth. 

In a visit to one of the university professors, who 
is perhaps as well known as any of the educators of 
the country, being the editor of a philosophical review 
and an author of note, I found him, not at the univer- 
sity, but at his home, keeping his medical office hours 
and catering to a large constituency of people who de- 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 387 

9 

pended upon him as a private physician. It is amazing 
how this man finds any time whatever to give to uni- 
versity teaching. 

The association of education with politics, the pro- 
fessors being appointed by the government, keeps 
education in general completely under state control. 
Such conditions not only tend to give the supervision 
of educational matters into the hands of men who are 
poorly equipped by training or experience to handle 
such subjects, but, what is worse, it degrades educa- 
tional leadership at times by placing it in charge of 
politicians who are not the highest exponents, either 
of citizenship or of public morals. 

Student life, as life, lacks in Argentina unifying in- 
terests. There is no particular or close sympathetic 
ties with the university or between the students. One 
finds occasional outbursts of patriotic feeling, but the 
ideas of social organisation or self-government, known 
to the American or English institutions of higher learn- 
ing, are seldom found, and the need of corporate stu- 
dent expression is evident and felt by many of the most 
intelligent professors and students. 

The students of Argentina mingle continuously in 
politics and are considered by the masses as in a sense 
the guardians of the nation's honour. These youth are 
usually found in the leadership in riots, revolutions and 
civil wars. Until recently law was the popular study 
for university students, and this was an open sesame 
for government positions which hold out rich entice- 
ments to so many inhabitants of this republic. At 
present medicine seems to take the lead. The writer 
visited the finely equipped medical building in Buenos 



388 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Aires where 3000 students in the three departments of 
medicine, pharmacy and dentistry were pursuing their 
studies. The building was immense and ornate like 
other public buildings of the city; there was a library 
de luxe of 50,000 volumes, a museum containing all 
kinds of Argentine 'products and the latest appliances 
and equipment for scientific work. One finds here, as 
in the other professional schools of Argentina, a bright, 
active and intelligent set of youths. Many of them 
are deeply influenced by the radical type of French 
rationalism and there is hardly a more irreligious at- 
mosphere conceivable among students than that which 
one finds among the university youth of this republic. 
In some cases one finds much industry and real students 
who are lovers of knowledge for itself. In such in- 
stances the student usually has gained considerable 
erudition and a type of ability which would be called 
encyclopaedic learning. French models have been fol- 
lowed in academic studies while considerable German 
influence is found in the professional schools. 

The Argentine student quite often has a broader 
cosmopolitan knowledge than is possessed by students 
of the United States. He has a facility for acquiring 
French, German and other European languages, and 
he is kept in touch daily through the Argentine news- 
papers with a wider sweep of world affairs than is 
usually supplied by the press of the United States. In 
temperament he is argumentative and has great facil- 
ity in expression. This student, on the other hand, is 
inferior in social and civic service, personal initiative, 
and the spirit of self-restraint. 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 389 

In the words of one of these students of whom I 
asked concerning the kind of life he liked best: 

"We want the life that is short but good, and I 
suppose that many of our ideals are influenced by the 
French philosophy in this regard." 

One will be told that the best class of young men in 
South America are to be found among the students, 
that they are the hope of the country. Considerable 
concern is being felt, therefore, concerning student 
character-building, considered justly to be fundamental 
to a nation's progress. The church has slight hold 
upon these men, and religion of any kind seems to be 
at present conspicuous by its absence. The professors 
openly teach agnosticism, and some of them will tell 
you that it is their professed purpose to do all in their 
power to rid their country of religion which they con- 
sider has been in the past a handicap fostering igno- 
rance, superstition and forming an enemy to independ- 
ent thinking. Apart from the fashion of observing 
religious exercises on the part of many of the older 
families, the Catholic church seems to have lost its 
grip upon the thoughtful and intelligent classes of 
Argentina. 

There are a few missionary schools which are well 
conducted, but the difficulty of reaching children for 
purely religious propaganda is very great. The pres- 
ent-day material influence which has swept quite com- 
pletely through this republic is seen in its power upon 
student ideals as in all other departments of the life of 
the country. Argentina seems to have found its body, 
but not yet to have discovered its soul. 

As far as modern education goes, Argentina will 



390 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

compare favourably in its methods and in the types of 
instruction with many another advanced country. In 
the city of Buenos Aires there are six excellent secon- 
dary colleges, as they are called, and one or more of 
these institutions in each province. The Ministry of 
Public Instruction has established libraries in connec- 
tion with these schools, which are open to the public. 
The secondary stage of instruction begins when the 
student is twelve or fourteen years of age and con- 
tinues for five years. At the end of this time the 
student is ready for the superior instruction afforded in 
the faculties in the five universities of the republic, 
of which Cordoba is the most ancient seat of learning, 
and the University of Buenos Aires the largest. The 
Universities of Santa Fe and Tucuman are both of them 
worthy of the country, and contain faculties for phi- 
losophy and letters, engineering, law, medicine and the 
sciences. The university course lasts for six years, 
with the exception of the medical course, which is for 
seven years. 

Despite what may be said concerning the generosity 
of the government along educational lines, the amount 
which the students are required to pay for their degrees 
seems excessive, this amount being several times greater 
than is required in the universities of the United States ; 
this is a real barrier to the ambition of the poor stu- 
dent. 

The training of teachers is receiving considerable 
attention in Argentina, there being seventeen normal 
schools for women and five for men, one of these be- 
ing of a very high grade and situated in Buenos Aires; 
there are also twelve mixed schools of this type. 



SOUTH AMERICANS AT SCHOOL 391 

Primary instruction is compulsory for all children 
from six to fourteen years, of whatever nationality. 
Many private institutions exist in addition to the pub- 
lic schools, and they are under the inspection of the 
National Educational Board. All instruction in the 
public schools is free, and provinces which lack funds 
to meet the expenses of primary instruction are aided 
by grants from the national government for this pur- 
pose. 

The government also maintains many special schools 
which are excellently equipped, especially those for 
economic, industrial, technical and agricultural work. 
The writer visited the Escula Superior de Commercio, 
which is housed in the same building with the large 
economic school, both of which are sections of the 
national University of Buenos Aires. In the eco- 
nomic section there were between three or four hun- 
dred students preparing especially for consular offices 
and to become teachers. The Commercial School con- 
tained for the most part prospective accountants. It 
was somewhat unusual to find the college lectures held 
from six to seven in the evening. These institutions 
are also open for night schools. 

The visitor from the United States is assured re- 
peatedly by the Argentines that they believe one of 
the best means of producing a real and abiding Pan- 
Americanism resides in the sending of students from 
Argentina to study in American universities, and in turn 
receiving teachers and students in the Argentine insti- 
tutions who will remain long enough to secure the point 
of view and the spirit of the country. There are at 
present between thirty and forty Argentine students 



392 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

studying in American universities. When one meets 
one of these returned students, one notices immediately 
the broader outlook upon North and South American 
relationships. There is much that students from both 
of these republics can learn from each other, and it 
is to be hoped that some co-operative arrangement may 
be made to bring together in larger and ever increasing 
numbers graduate students from these two countries. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE AMERICAN CONSUL AND HIS WORK 

AMONG the men who are serving the United 
States in foreign lands there are few who have 
the opportunity of wielding greater power or influence 
on behalf of their country than the consular represen- 
tatives. It has been my privilege to know many of 
these men in different countries, and on the whole I 
have come to respect them highly, both for their ideals 
and the manner in which they are striving to attain 
them, frequently under arduous and difficult circum- 
stances. 

There are few officials of the United States whose 
complicated work is less accurately known by the rank 
and file of citizens, and even by world travellers, than 
these men who, while exiles from their native land, 
are supposed to know more about that land than the 
people at home, in order that they may translate the 
spirit and the work of their country into terms intel- 
ligible to the foreign nations in which they serve. 
That our consular service has been sadly handicapped 
at times by politicians ignorant of conditions outside of 
the United States, cannot be denied. That here and 
there there have been unwise appointments and poor 
Consuls also cannot be denied. If, however, our peo- 

393 



394 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

pie and our politicians would take the time and effort 
to study both the object and the activities of these im- 
portant representatives from whom foreigners, espe- 
cially in matters of trade, learn the characteristics of 
the United States, and the way of doing business in this 
republic, the natural trade expansion of America would 
be facilitated, and the work of the American Consuls 
would be made easier than it is to-day. 

Increased appreciation and less ignorant criticism of 
these government officers would undoubtedly help the 
service. But appreciation is born of knowledge, and 
the average person seems to have little definite con- 
ception of the consular work. 

Suppose, for example, the Americans travelling 
abroad who received favours from these officers upon 
whom they are often largely dependent for information 
and guidance as well as for protection, should form 
the habit of writing to the State Department as well as 
to the Consul himself, speaking of their appreciation of 
many kindnesses proffered; suppose that every Ameri- 
can business man doing business abroad should take 
the position of a certain prominent man of affairs in a 
South American city who stated that he considered it 
both undignified and disloyal to his country to criticise 
harshly the representative whom his nation had seen 
fit to place in a foreign nation — would not such a course 
be the means of making a better consular service? 
We have heard of many people who have been quite 
ready to send in complaints, both to the State Depart- 
ment and to the Consuls themselves, as well as to 
air their supposed grievances concerning our service 
abroad. Is it not time and perhaps a peculiarly strate- 



THE AMERICAN CONSUL AND HIS WORK 395 

gic time just now, for those who understand something 
of the consular difficulties and have benefited by con- 
sular favours to make themselves heard? 

In the first place there is considerable misunder- 
standing as to the fundamental object with which our 
American Consuls are sent to foreign nations. Some 
people will tell you that they are there to serve solely 
the "American Colony" or the people who are estab- 
lished in business and trade abroad; that it is their 
business to act as legal advisers for these American 
business men in other nations, and in a general way to 
take their part against the legal exactions of laws and 
customs in the country where they serve. 

It is not always understood that such is not the 
main business of the American Consul, but that he is 
primarily the agent of his government to the people 
of the nation to which he is sent. He is to foster com- 
mercial and trade relations between Americans at home 
and the business people of alien countries, and when 
these relations have resulted in a settlement of Ameri- 
can business in these countries, much of this responsi- 
bility to these particular people, at least, ceases. In 
other words, the American Consul is not primarily a 
policeman or an unpaid legal attache to any business 
firm acting abroad. The service which he renders 
repeatedly to such firms is often a voluntary and 
friendly one, rather than one primarily laid down in 
his instructions. 

One can readily realise why this is true, when the 
multifold duties of the Consul to the various govern- 
ment departments at home, are considered. 

There is first of all the Consul's duty to the State 



396 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

Department which involves numerous and frequent re- 
ports. There are accounts of shipping of all kinds to 
be kept, port statistics, political and statistical reports, 
registration of American citizens, and passports to be 
vised. There is the Consul's jurisdictional work, his 
work of settling the estates of persons dying abroad, 
together with his peculiar intercessory offices for the 
American colony in countries where there are capitu- 
lations, or in countries where there are extra-territorial 
rights. 

There are also duties which the Consul must perform 
for the Treasury Department. These include such 
services as transfers of all United States bonds abroad: 
the income tax business; demigraphic statistics to secure 
and send every week to the Department; and bills of 
health for ships. 

The Department of Commerce makes large demands 
upon the Consul. This Department requires him, 

i. To legalise all transfer of shipping. 

2. To survey all protested cargo and protested ship- 
ments of merchandise and damaged ships. 

3. To attend to the discharge and enrolment of 
every American seaman in his port. 

4. To act as intermediary between ships' captains 
and port authorities. 

5. To send American sailors to hospitals when it is 
required, and also to see to their burial and to the 
settlement of their estates. 

6. To write regular commercial reports. 

7. To settle all disputes between masters and mar- 
iners. 



THE AMERICAN CONSUL AND HIS WORK 397 

When it is realised that much of the excellent service 
which the Department of Commerce at Washington is 
rendering at present to the country, in the way of sta- 
tistical knowledge and reports concerning various 
branches of trade with foreign nations, depends upon 
the regular reports of Consuls concerning these mat- 
ters, a new and vital importance attaches to the service 
of such government officers. 

The Department of the Navy, also, looks to the 
Consul as the sole representative of the Bureau of 
Hydrography and expects him to watch the changes of 
light houses, holding him responsible, in part at least, 
for any ships which are wrecked by reason of changes 
in lights and signals, etc. The Navy Department 
also requires him to receive warships entering his 
port with the proper ceremony [which is considerably 
complicated] and to purchase coal and water for such 
ships when required. A certain Consul of our ac- 
quaintance was involved recently in a negotiation in- 
volving $17,000 in the purchase of coal for a warship 
entering his port. 

There are also consular reports to be sent to the 
Department of Agriculture, such as periodical crop 
reports, and he acts as agent for the transmission of 
grain and fruit seeds. 

The American Consul abroad is also the deputy 
officer of Customs in the place to which he is sent. He 
must legalise the invoice at the point of origin unless 
such invoice is worth less than $100.00. He must 
itemise invoices from which the import statistics of 
the United States are made, and this requires that he 



398 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

shall know the wholesale prices and hold a check upon 
any articles that are undervalued. 

To the Post Office Department this officer is also 
related, being the agent of the dead letter office of the 
United States, returning uncalled-for letters to that 
Department, and also reminding Post Offices in his 
territory of their obligation in this regard. It is his 
duty also to receive mail of American citizens at the 
consular offices and see to its forwarding. I have 
found frequently the Consul handling mail at his office 
for several hundred persons. 

It is also the Consul's work to assist all secret service 
men of the Army and Navy, as well as to devote his 
time and attention to travelling officials of the govern- 
ment who may be passing through his section. 

The responsibilities of the consular officer to the 
people of the United States consists in answering every 
letter received, inscribing them in a book together with 
a reply, each letter being numbered. 

He represents also all the Courts of the United 
States for the Department of Justice and possesses 
notarial responsibility as well as the work of convey- 
ance and is a Commissioner of Deeds. He must ac- 
quaint himself thoroughly with all the treaties existing 
between the United States and the country to which 
he is sent and keep himself posted concerning every 
development in connection with the multifold duties 
enumerated above. In a word the consular office is 
a clearing house for the branches of our government 
at home and public business abroad. It is a rallying 
point for Americans doing business in foreign lands 



THE AMERICAN CONSUL AND HIS WORK 399 

and a channel through which international trade with 
these lands may be expedited. 

To travellers and tourists, moreover, the Consul is 
an indispensable necessity and friend in need. Every 
visiting American, tourist, traveller, official, professor, 
investigator or adventurer, feels that he has the right 
(and he seldom omits using it) of making a call upon 
the Consul. At times he only wishes to drop in for 
a "friendly chat" or "pay his respects." He is glad to 
see an American and is inclined to sit and gossip about 
things back home, not realising many times that the 
busy man has a huge pile of invoices at his side await- 
ing his signature, or perhaps must sit up half the 
night to write a report that must catch to-morrow's 
steamer. 

To the tourist the Consul must be the Liberal Dis- 
penser of Information. As a matter of fact, the usual 
Consul who gets along in the service is encyclopaedic 
in his knowledge. He knows that he will be required 
not only to give letters of introduction to travellers, but 
also to inform the men where they can buy the best 
brand of cigars, and tell the ladies what there is to see 
in town and the best places to shop. I shall never 
forget the subdued, sad look upon a ConsuPs face in 
the city of Cairo as he stood beside me and watched 
the arrival at the Shepard's hotel of three hundred 
American tourists on the Steamship Cleveland. He 
exclaimed resignedly as he watched their approach, 
"I'll have them all this afternoon!" 

It must also be noted that the Consul, who chances 
to be located in a place where there is no Minister or 
Ambassador, owes social responsibilities to the Ameri- 



400 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

can colony of which he is the head, and must attend 
lunches, dinners and receptions, as well as personally 
give such entertainments. He is also in such places 
called upon, on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, 
Washington's Birthday, and on other national patriotic 
occasions, to make speeches and preside at the func- 
tions. 

There has been much said and written concerning the 
salaries of our consular and diplomatic officers, and 
the handicap under which they serve in competing with 
the representatives of other nations in the matter of 
dignity in living, houses, entertainment, travelling ex- 
penses, etc. There has been without doubt an im- 
provement along this line in recent years. Yet the 
traveller is frequently surprised and chagrined at find- 
ing the handicap and disadvantage under which many 
of our consular officers work, because of small salaries, 
or allowances which very easily are expended in for- 
eign lands in their necessary task of ingratiating them- 
selves through the medium of dinners and social 
favours with the members of the nation whose good 
will they must necessarily possess if they succeed in 
their mission. We have rarely seen a consular officer 
who has been able to save money. If he loses his 
appointment through changes in the administration or 
for other reasons, he often finds himself out of touch 
with things at home, and having been so long away 
from home-friends and conditions in the United States, 
he is quite helpless. 

It would seem that a pension for Consuls who have 
devoted the best years of their lives, often in the out- 
of-way places of the earth, to serving and forward- 



THE AMERICAN CONSUL AND HIS WORK 401 

ing the interests of their country, would be in line with 
strict and equal justice. In these days when the United 
States is beginning to look as never before far out 
upon the trade routes of the world, it is especially op- 
portune to ask whether sufficient general attention and 
appreciation are being given to the excellent and inde- 
fatigable service which our Consuls are rendering to 
.the American commercial world. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

WINNING SOUTH AMERICANS 

You must rush and run if you would fight ; or if you would 
take the best places in the market. But there are ideas which 
require infinite time and infinite space in Heaven's light to 
mature; and the fruit they produce can survive years of 
neglect. — Sir Rabindranath Tagore. 

GANIVET, the Spanish critic, has said that the 
glorification of political and commercial activi- 
ties, which make up the contemporary notion of civili- 
sation, only leads to the triumph of the commonplace 
and vulgar elements in society, and is far from consti- 
tuting an ideal worthy of imitation. 

If we are to understand the spirit and temper of the 
Latin Americans, we must not try to do so in the realm 
of commerce only, since in this region they are begin- 
ners, and industry and trade have never bulked big 
to them as an end of human existence. The dollar- 
mark is not an open sesame to the Latin American soul. 
As one of their Spanish critics says: 

"The grandest enterprises are those in which money 
has no part and the cost falls entirely on the brain and 
heart." 



402 



WINNING SOUTH AMERICANS 403 

That which Borrow said of the Spaniards in his 
"The Bible in Spain" is applicable to their South 
American progeny: 

"In their social intercourse, no people in the world 

exhibit a juster feeling of what is due to the dignity 

of human nature, or better understand the behaviour 

which it behooves a man to adopt toward his fellow 

eings. 

President Woodrow Wilson is reported to have said 
that the influences and advantages of college life are 
chiefly "atmospheric." It is the atmospheric influence 
and condition of the Latin America of to-day, laden 
with all the heritage of the mediaeval old world, that 
must be caught and felt, if we are to judge or fathom 
these people. It is the soul of the nation which we 
must study. 

"Were I so tall to reach the pole, 
Or grasp the ocean with my span, 
I must be measured by my soul — 
The mind's the standard of the man." 

While its former moulding was largely from Europe 
and from North Africa, from whence the Latin 
Americans drew their inner ideals and motives as well 
as their moral and spiritual standards of life, in the 
later years, especially since the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century when the Spanish and Portuguese Amer- 
icans threw off the yoke of the old world, the outer 
influences have reached them from both Europe and 
the United States. It was North America, as well as 



404; UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

France, that gave inspiration and confidence to these 
struggling South American republics, in their battle 
against the "crowned people" of Europe. The Mon- 
roe Doctrine, maligned and criticised as it has been at 
times, both by Americans and Europeans, from the be- 
ginning of its promulgation was a protecting barrier 
against the European monarchies. Its moral influence 
went far to offset the thrust of European aristocracies 
and monarchical influence which have been busy for 
generations trying to keep Latin America European- 
ised. The Constitutions of virtually all the Central and 
South American republics, modelled on that of the 
United States, have been a link binding these peoples to 
the new world. 

Politically, the Latin Americans belong to the West- 
ern Hemisphere, and the sense of liberty and rights 
of free nations is everywhere strong and regnant. 
The statecraft on paper in these countries is thor- 
oughly democratic. The fact that performance has 
not lived up to promise is due to the strong heredity 
of Iberian traits and customs, the natural tendency of 
the Latin temperament to mingle and be influenced by 
Continentals rather than by the Saxon or North Ameri- 
can, and also in part because the physical Conditions of 
South America have been inconsistent with the leading 
abilities of the nations responsible for their develop- 
ment. The Latin Americans, especially those of the 
educated classes, would thrive best in a country with 
all its natural resources garnered, its mountains tun- 
nelled, its vast spaces interlocked by railways and its 
institutions fixed. In spirit they belong to a settled 



WINNING SOUTH AMERICANS 405 

and conservative polity, rather than to a continent 
needing the pioneering engineer and the trader. 

A people placing the dignity of gentlemanhood be- 
fore the necessity of agriculture, and considering ro- 
mance, politics and artistic endeavours more to be 
honoured than the development of the country com- 
mercially or economically, are worlds removed from 
the "Yankee" with his latent ingenuity in mechanical 
pursuits, his allegiance to land development and money- 
making, and his Anglo-Saxon habits of plodding and 
the overcoming of physical obstacle. 

While the Latin American, as every one bears wit- 
ness, is not lacking in intelligence, he is poorer in the 
spirit of that kind of enterprise that "goes up to oc- 
cupy" unexplored and undeveloped continents. He is 
adaptable to this kind of a work only to a limited 
extent. He begins with enthusiasm, but he lacks the 
power of sustained effort. He is learning at present, 
and quite rapidly in spots, but he has inherited among 
other things a lax discipline of will, which renders 
his effort spasmodic and partial. The Latin Americans 
have never applied seriously and as a whole their rich 
gifts of imagination to business, as have the North 
Americans. They have been willing to sit back and 
allow the enterprising European or American to come 
in and furnish both capital and skilled practical ability 
for the development of mines and the building of docks 
and roads. Like the Easterner, until very recently, 
the cultured admirer of arts, letters, music and law, has 
let the "legions thunder past" with their modern scien- 
tific appliances and machinery. The South Americans 
have been satisfied with the less practical sentiments 



406 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

of friendship, chivalrous and correct forms, bookish- 
ness, and the exercise of oratory and speech, in which 
arts they have to-day few masters. 

The Latin American spirit and attitude of mind 
has been well set forth by a Latin American, Senor 
Francisco J. Yanes: 

"A charge frequently made against us Latin Amer- 
icans, and in a sense true, is that we are a race of 
dreamers. Perhaps it is so. We inherited from our 
forefathers the love of the beautiful and the grand; 
the facility for expression and the vivid imagination 
of our race; from them we inherited the sonorous, ma- 
jestic Spanish, the flexible, musical Portuguese, and the 
French, language of art, and a responsive chord to all 
that thrills, be it colour, harmony or mental imagery; 
we inherited their varying moods, their noble traits, 
and their shortcomings, both of which we have pre- 
served, and in certain cases improved, under the influ- 
ence of our environment, our majestic mountains, our 
primeval forests, the ever-blooming tropical flowers, 
the birds of sweetest wild songs and wonderful 
plumage ; under magnificent skies and the inspiration 
taken from other poets and writers, be they foreign or 
native, who have gone through life like the minstrels 
of old with a song on their lips and an unsatisfied yearn- 
ing in their hearts." 

That such temperament is foreign in general to the 
direct and utilitarian American of the colder North, 
is apparent. That we must learn to understand it, to 
adapt ourselves to it, yes, and win it to ourselves by 
sympathetic imagination and an effort of will and in- 
telligence, is also patent; that is, providing we are ever 



WINNING SOUTH AMERICANS 407 

to see anything like a Pan-America, with a co-operating 
and mutually inter-dependent people. 

How are we to win the Latin America of such men- 
tal and spiritual endowment? This is the question of 
questions for every North American, be he student, 
trader, preacher or teacher, to seriously consider. 

First of all, we must abolish that provincialism 
which takes the attitude that "We are the people, and 
wisdom will die with us." The great war is doing 
much to break down these isolating walls of prejudice 
between us and France and England especially. After 
this war we will not find men of intelligence fighting 
over the old battles of the Revolution of the United 
States from the mother country, and on the other hand 
we will not find a certain type of Englishman treating 
America with that indifferent superciliousness that ex- 
isted more or less in Matthew Arnold's time, when 
Britishers were inclined to adopt toward us an attitude 
of condescension, which we have been using far too 
often in this generation toward the Latin Americans. 
With men like Lord Bryce and Arthur Balfour to 
translate Americanism to Britishers, and with the inter- 
mingling of hosts of soldier youth in a common des- 
perate task, we may be assured of the breaking down 
of the barriers between international fraternity, par- 
ticularly as regards Great Britain. As regards France, 
the entire world will be drawn to her perforce after the 
magnificent heroism and sacrifice in the name of honour 
that she has exhibited against her malignant foe. 

But what of our relations with Latin America? To 
be sure, we shall know more about these people both 
through the enforced trade brought about by the war, 



408 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

and also because they, as a whole, are practically with 
us in sentiment, if not in every case in actual bearing 
of arms against a common enemy of republicanism and 
a world of peace and unalarmed industrial progress. 
Yet there will be a long way to go after all this has 
been gained before we really win the soul of Latin 
America. 

We must come to know them as' they are, a highly 
cultivated and sensitive race at the top of their society, 
with little or no middle class as yet, while below lie 
the great populations, still more or less ignorant, with 
little knowledge of us, and politically without a voice. 
We must understand that this is a proud people, in- 
heriting chivalric and European ideas regarding their 
homes, their women and their deportment. We must 
learn that only men sent to Latin America who can get 
quickly points of view of other people, need to be sent 
there. Their languages are important for us to know 
for it is through the native speech that any people re- 
veal themselves. But the conception of the Latin 
American must change through the desire and effort of 
study and thoughtful travel and intercommunication 
generally, if we ever hope to reach the understanding 
of the inner life of the people. 

One can hardly win his allegiance and sympathy, 
when one pictures him as a savage or a coloured 
man, lover principally of revolutions and bull-fights. 
Neither can one have much influence in a land of which 
we are as childishly ignorant as, in the United States, 
we are to-day of our southern neighbours. 

It is also possible to paint a too roseate picture of 
commercial opportunity in South America. Those who 



WINNING SOUTH AMERICANS 409 

represent it as the unadulterated Land of Promise and 
an Eldorado wherein fortunes can be had for the ask- 
ing, should also show the other side of the shield, mak- 
ing their readers as certain of the obstacles and condi- 
tions of success as of the attractive possibilities. 

South America is waiting for population, but this 
does not mean that every kind of an American is needed 
down here, or that men sent here promiscuously, with- 
out careful preparation, succeed. The list of South 
American failures is a long one; If one doubts this 
statement let him talk with any American Consul, who 
has served any length of time in this country, whose 
sympathy, ingenuity and pocketbook have been thor- 
oughly exercised in the attempt to get well meaning but 
misinformed Americans "back to the States." 

South America is indeed an Eldorado. It has un- 
told wealth in mines, in agricultural lands, in forests, in 
cattle and sheep, in tropical products of almost every 
kind and description. Its matchless resources have 
hardly been discovered as yet in many sections, but the 
reason for this, it should be stated plainly, lies in the 
fact that there are huge walls of difficulty to be climbed, 
and without capital, brains and indomitable courage, 
the door to these riches can not be unlocked. 

The pioneer American finds in South America, as 
he has found in the Philippines, that, no matter how 
rich in natural resources may be the section of his se- 
lection, without means of transportation his investment 
is absolutely without value. Good roads, railroads, 
country highways, even ox carts and cattle roads are 
among the first necessities in South America to-day. 
In many parts of these countries the opportunities at 



410 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

present are chiefly, if not entirely, for men of large 
capital. It must be remembered that the American will 
find more than his match in small shopkeeping in the 
present-day Portuguese and the Spaniard, who are 
natural-born shopkeepers, and are satisfied with a 
smaller gain. A big department store, like a big hotel, 
would have an excellent chance in nearly any one of 
the larger South American cities. The only city in 
South America which possesses a department store to 
be compared to the greater ones of North America is 
Buenos Aires, and virtually the same thing could be 
said concerning hotels. 

As to agriculture and colonising, the average Ameri- 
can feels decidedly out of place in trying to compete 
with the European peasant on the rolling hills of Rio 
Grande do Sul or on the flat levels of Argentina. The 
American farmer demands a standard of living with 
schools for his children, and things which are to him 
necessities of life which are not found in the agricul- 
tural sections of these countries. 

For the big industrialists or captains of industry, the 
doors are wide open. South America needs new 
municipal plants, new dock works, railroads to pene- 
trate the interior, banks, mills, and manufacturing 
enterprises, and public service of almost every kind. 

Knowledge is power, and the ability to speak Spanish 
or Portuguese learned from some school in the United 
States, will help the prospective business man going 
south of the Rio Grande; but unless his equipment is 
also founded upon a bank account plus patience and 
adaptability to conditions alien to his own, he had best 
remain in the United States. 



WINNING SOUTH AMERICANS 411 

Furthermore the spirit of the South American is par- 
ticularly sensitive to criticism and a loose kind of writ- 
ing which has brought about much misunderstanding. 
"We do not mind being criticised," said one Latin 
American to me, "but we like to have the critic show 
both sides." In other words they like to have some of 
the things they have accomplished along lines which to 
them are praiseworthy, played up a bit, as well as their 
business failures and moral shortcomings. 

The press is a power in Latin America, and the 1 
people take the written word with more seriousness 
than do the North Americans, accustomed to seeing 
themselves and their public men caricatured. 

An American official, located in a South American 
city, who was asked recently how the press of the 
United States could assist in fostering better relations 
with Latin America, said: 

"In the first place, the press should tell the truth 
about people and conditions down here." 

We are assured that this official did not wish in his 
reply to be understood as placing the press of the 
United State-, in the Ananias column, but wished to 
aim a shaft against the careless writing about South 
America which is inclined to over-emphasise certain 
sensational features of life there at the expense of ad- 
justed perspective. 

The present-day traveller rarely visits a section in 
Latin America without hearing how some of our jour- 
nalists have whisked through these cities and written 
back to the "States" some generalisations which have 
been drawn from a too limited observation. Some of 
these have been serious handicaps to conscientious 



412 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

writers who have been really desirous of getting at facts 
at the expense of time and travel, not simply in the 
coastal cities, but also in the out-of-the-way sections. 

One South American city, especially, has been unfor- 
tunate of late in having a series of visits from irrespon- 
sible writers who have "written up" the public men 
with such careless regard for the facts as to cause seri- 
ous discussion and in one case, at least, a cablegram of 
apology from the "States" to the Southern republic. 
A certain book written not long ago by an American 
who took occasion to point out the weakness of these 
Southern peoples with little attempt to -suggest any 
points of strength which they possess, was taken up 
in Congress by one republic, where it was held up as 
an example of North American inability to understand 
the Latin Americans. 

Another matter of extreme importance in dealing 
with the members of American republics other than 
our own is our attitude toward the coloured question. 
A keen Brazilian said to me: "Unless the people of the 
United States take a different attitude to the coloured 
question down here than they do at home, our close 
and permanent friendly relations are doomed." 

He did not mean that we were necessarily to reverse 
our policy in the United States concerning marriage 
between people of different colour, but rather that we 
should recognise that there is no colour line in Brazil, 
and that throughout Latin America where the white 
blood had been mixed freely with that of the Indian, 
and in some parts with the negroid strain, there could 
not be drawn the distinct line of demarcation as here 
amongst us. When members of the national Academy 



.WINNING SOUTH AMERICANS 413 

of Letters, politicians of note, and writers and poets of 
distinction are ostensibly dark-skinned, and proud, es- 
pecially of their coboclo blood [mixture of European 
and Indian] it stands to reason that a discrimination 
of acquaintances based on the fact of face pigment is 
impossible. Americans or Europeans who reside in 
these countries successfully are quick to : discern the 
conditions, and act accordingly. It is not so easy for 
us dwelling thousands of miles away, and a slip of the 
pen that classes these people, whose complexion in gen- 
eral is that of Spain or Southern Italy, among South 
African negroes, is a tragic mistake. It is high time 
for us in the United States to realise that the vast 
populations of the planet are of a colour of skin differ- 
ent from our own, and by that reason not necessarily 
our inferiors. 

It is on the basis of equality, not theoretical but real, 
that we are to win the South American. None are 
quicker to resent patronage of any kind. Justly so, 
since their best are on a level of understanding and cul- 
ture not inferior to that of North Americans or Euro- 
peans. Many keen students of nations think that the 
Latin American is ahead of us, when found at the 
summit of his society, both in cosmopolitan knowledge 
and brain power. 

It is important that we as a nation understand these 
matters and study to be liberal-minded, seeking to 
find what a people, not our own, desire as things worth 
while, rather than what we may chance to regard as 
important. No one race or nation is complete in and 
of itself. Every people have a distinct contribution 
for the completeness of the world's idealism and ac- 



414 UNDERSTANDING SOUTH AMERICA 

complishment. The East has stood for spiritual gifts 
as the West has given the material things, the organisa- 
tion and the modern science. Yet these latter are 
powerless and puny props without the aspirations and 
satisfactions of the spiritual and ideal elements by 
which also men must live. 

If the South Americans incline toward the traits that 
are our opposites, things that flavour of the Orient, of 
sentiment, family life and romantic and chivalric at- 
tachments, let no one say they are by this fact inferior. 
America needs soul to-day. Money and vast organi- 
sation of capital are the possessions of the northern 
sphere. To the south, the great hemisphere is rich 
in feeling, conscious of cultured and polite inheritance, 
placing a great emphasis upon pleasures, fine arts and 
gentlemanhood, not without attention to friendship and 
easy human relations unknown to a like degree in the 
brisker, more abrupt north. These, too, are needed. 

"We are members one of another." The world is 
one. God's children come from the east, the west, the 
north and the south. They all come, too, bringing 
gifts. Fortunate is the man or nation who can see all 
life steadily and see it whole^ 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Academy of Letters (Brazilian), 

28 
Agriculture, U. S. Dept. of, 398 
Almagro, companion of Pizarro, 

144 
Americans, will tell truth to save 

time, 29 
American Defense Society, publi- 
cation of German addresses, 
68, 69 
Ana, Santa, Steamship Lines, 210, 

212 
Andes, furnishing obstacles to 
commerce, 51, 52 
transportation by mules and 
llamas, 118 
Antofagasta, 102; nitrate port, 

221 
Arequipa, 150 

Argentina, advanced women of, 
338, 339 
German sentiment, 65 ff. 
parade against Germany, 66 
plains of, 228 
political history of, 253 
population, 26 
the Argentines, 227 ff. 
Army and Navy, of Ecuador, 95, 

96 
Asquia Alta, an Andean moun- 
tain village described, 148 ff. 
Atahualpa, entrapped by Pizarro, 

158 
Atlantic and Pacific S. S. Co., 220 
Aurucanians, in Chile, 26 
Austria, shoe trade with Peru, 

194 
Automobiles, American cars used, 
317, 319, 320 
automobiling in Brazil, 312 ff. 
European cars used as taxis, 
316 



Automobiles, in Buenos Aires, 231 
Aztecs, versus the Incas, 152, 153 

Balfour, Arthur, interpreter of 

internationalism, 408 
Banks, needed in Panama, 82 
Barbosa, Dr. Ruy, statesman and 
orator, describes present day 
Brazil, 305 ff. 
Barrett, John, 23 
Bible, ignorance of, 360 ff. 
Bingham, quoted concerning 

Panama Canal, 72 
Black List, British, in Brazil, 63 

in Chile, 57 
Blaine, Jas. G., Secretary of 

State, 23 
Bogota, customs of students, 35 
Bolivar, Simon, The George 
Washington of South Amer- 
ica, 100 
Bolivia, business, climate, etc., 98- 
105 
German trade prospers in, 50 
military service compulsory for 

Indians, 102 
most insistent needs, 105 
population of, 26 
Borrow, author of "The Bible 

in Spain," quoted, 404 
Branco Rio, Brazilian Statesman, 

305 
Brazil, Academy of Letters, 28 
aristocracy of higher classes, 

289, 290, 291 
as Brazilians see her, 298 ff. 
attitude to colour question, 302, 

303 
attitude towards Germans, 296 
declares war with Germany, 65 
described Germans, 62, 63 
German colonies, 48, 64 



417 



418 



INDEX 



Brazil, land of the Gauchos, the, 
268 
men of Brazil described, 284 

ff. 
open minded advance, 45 
Britishers, number of in Argen- 
tina, 236 
Browning, Dr. W. E., educational 

work in Chile, 355 ff. 
Bryce, Grace & Co., English firm 

in Peru, 214 
Bryce, Lord, quoted concerning 
cattle and horses, 261 
knowledge of U. S., 408 
regarding divergent Ameri- 
cans, 319 
Buenos Aires, city de luxe, the, 
243 ff. 
described, 230 ff. 
educational institutions, 391 ff. 
hotels and department stores, 

411 
Jockey Club, 240 
materiality and splendour, 234 
population and area of second 

largest Latin city, 250 
railroad from La Paz, 101 
shipping service to, 210 
stock shows, 234, 235 
Business, American business men 
caricatured, 39 
American investment in Peru, 
desire for, 122 
Brazilians' attitude towards, 

295 
commercial activities infra 

dig, 108, 109 
dignity required, 32 
gentlemen of leisure popular, 

11 3 

handicapped by varying export 

duties, 33 
opportunities on West Coast, 

186 ff._ 
shopkeeping in Cuzco, 137 
two prices, 112 
women's attitude towards, 336 

Cavalcanti, Dr. Amaro, Judge 
and Senator, describes Bra- 
zil's political needs, 298 ff. 



Cariocaus, their characteristics 

and gambling spirit, 316 
Catholics, church in Argentina, 

233 
church in Chile, 167 
combating German sentiment, 

55 
Cattle, life of the South Ameri- 
can cowboy, 26 r ff. 

raising of, 256, 257 

Argentina, 229 

South Brazil, 64 
Cereo de Pasco, copper mines in 

Peru, 120 
Characteristics, 114, 115 

attitude of mind, 407 

attitude to time saving, 29 

courtesy demanded, 32 

gentlemanhood in Chile, 167 

human dignity elevated, 311 

lacks persistence, 42 

love of peace and letters in 
Brazil, 303, 304 

love of pretentious buildings, 
35, 36 

medievalism, 186, 187 

necessary to know, 21 

no middle class, 184 

of Brazilians, 284 ff. 

of South Americans, 28-30 

Oriental resemblances, 31-46 

prefers gambling to out-of-door 
sports, 40 

spiritual qualities of, 403 ff. 

theoretical rather than prac- 
tical, 32 

traditions strong, 191 
Chicha, the South American bev- 
erage, 129 

Peruvian national drink, 224 
Chile, awakening of, 357 

business conditions, 198 

capital needed, 173 

climate of, 164 

dignity of labour, 168 

German influence, 55-62 

history of education, 380 ff. 

men of Chile, 164 ff. 

military inclinations, 181 

modernising of, 20 

nitrate, 166 



INDEX 



419 



Chile, patriotism of, 179 
Tapeline Republic, the, 165 
women and business, 337 

Christianity, adherents of in 
Peru, 349 
ignorance of Bible, 360 ff. 
Protestant Church in Chile, 

353 re- 
statement of Catholic priest, 

365 
Church, cathedral at Cuzco, 157 
catholic influence in Ecuador, 

catholic, mediaeval tendency in 

Peru, 106, 341 ff. 
condition in Argentina, 358 ff. 
described by inhabitant of 

Peru, 190, no 
devotion to in Chile, 351 
festival in Cuzco, 348 
upheld by women, 331 
Climate, reminding of Orient, 31 
Coal, need of working mines in 

Peru, 121 
Cochabamba, 101, 102 
Coco, leaves used for food and 

drink, 140 
Coffee, fazenda, Sao Paulo, 286 
Collegio National de Guadeloupe 

of Peru, 371 
Colon Theatre of Buenos Aires, 

240 
Colour questions, 413 ff. 
Commerce, Department of U. S., 

39.7. .398 
Commissions, trade, 194, 195 
Constant, Benjamin, leader of 

Brazilian positivism, 301 
Consul, the American, and his 
work, 394 ff. 
duties of, 396 ff. 
salary of, 401 
Copper, mines, 193, 120 
Cotton, rich possibilities in Peru, 

117, 118 
Cotton mills, of Peru, 221 
Cowboy, in South America, 261 ff. 
barbecues on the large estan- 
cias, 276 
Customs, United States, 398 
Cuzco, buried treasure, 376, 377 



Cuzco, city of colour, 103 
city of the sun, life described, 

i.35, 15 « 
University of, 373 
temple of the sun, 143, 344, 

345 
wages of Indians, 146 
women of, 141 

I 
Da Costa, Senora, quoted re- 
garding statue on Andes, 
. 330, 33i 
Deities, worshipped by lncas, 

343, 344 

Development, industrial, in Chile, 
220, 221 
of social life in South Ameri- 
can camps, 223, 224 

Dom Pedro II, beloved ruler of 
Brazil, 292, 293, 307 

Ecuador, army and navy, 95, 96 

chief need of people, 92 

climate of, 94 

constitution of, 95 

geographical and commercial, 
87-98 
Education, athletics, 378 

Brazilian students in U. S., 302 

Chilean students in U. S., 176 

Chilean system, 380 

co-education, 384 

collegio, 370, 371 

compulsory in Peru, 132 

condition of in Panama, 83 

convent schools, 334 

cost of, 370 

degree day, 377, 378 

denied by Spanish conquerors, 

9i 

German teachers in Chile, 383 
Industrial education needed, 

380 
in Ecuador, 92, 93 
in Argentina, 388 ff. 
in Uruguay, 271 
kind needed in Chile, 168 
lack of resources in Brazil, 303 
literature and memoriter work 

preferred, 41 
mission schools, 355 ff. 



4S0 



INDEX 



Education, Peruvian problems, 369 
primary Education Bill in 

Chile, 174 
Protestant Theological Semi- 
nary in Chile, 354 
religion of students, 390 
religious training in Chile, 353 
State control of, 388 
South Americans at school, 367 

ff. 
Students in Chile love politics, 

170 
student life, 373-386 
Talco, agricultural school, 384 
teachers, 387 
technical colleges, 385 
University of Cuzco, 138 
Uruguayan boys in American 
schools, 376 
woman's education, 333 
El Misti, Volcano of, 151 
English, trade of in Chile, 173 
Estancias, in Argentina, 328, 229 
life of, characterised, 255, 256 
Europe, pleasure ground of South 
Americans, 176 
giving ideals to South Ameri- 
cans, 190 
Grace and Co., 230 
European War, effect on trade, 
197 ff. 

Fzzenda, the, of Brazil, 268 
Family life, bulks large, 29 
giving distinction in Brazil, 
390, 391 
Finances, condition of in Uru- 
guay, 276 ff. 
income and wealth of Argen- 
tines, 256 
banks and money standards in 

Uruguay, 281, 382 
National City Bank of N. Y. 
representative quoted, 276 ff. 
of Peru, 217 

Prodigal use of money by Ar- 
gentines, 336 
Forestry, on the sides of the 

Andes, 121, 122 
France, Latin loyalties to, 395 
philosophy of, 390 



France, attention to, 408 
why Brazilians cleave to her, 
302 
Franck, Harry, quoted, 35 
French, population of in Argen- 
tina, 236 

Ganivet, Spanish critic, quoted 
regarding Spanish speaking 
peoples, 43, 43 

regarding commercial activi- 
ties, 403 
Gama, Dr. Domicio da, quoted 
regarding importance of 
knowing South American 
names, 398 
Gaucho, the South American 
cowboy, 361 ff. 

the Uruguayan type, 367 
Gardiner, W. H., quoted on Prus- 
sian plans, 68, 69 
Germans, attitude of Brazilians 
toward, 396 

colonising in Chile, 173 

distrust of, 56, 57, 63 

in South America, 47-71 

interned ships in Chile, 53 

newspaper propaganda, 189, 
190 

nitrate production, 197 

"penetration" of, 48 

population in South America, 
68 

propaganda, 58, 59 

teachers in Peru, 369; in Chile, 

383 
Giesecke, Dr. Alberto A., Amer- 
ican Rector University Cuz- 
co, 374 
Gomez, General Juan Vicente, 

ruler of Venezuela, 67 
Government, American Consular 
Service, 394 ff. 
collegiate presidency plan in 

Uruguay, 273, 274 
constitution of the U, S. as 

model, 291 ff. 
Brazil bloodless revolution, 

307 
favouritism in politics, 181 
in Chile, 169 ff. 



INDEX 



421 



Government, of Incas, 155 ff. 
politics and the Brazilians, 285 
political reform needed, 308, 

309 
political promise and perform- 
ance, 405 
protection of church, 353, 357 
positions desired, 33, 180 
revenue and civil code, Brazil, 
299 ff. 
Great Britain, investments in 

Argentina, 253 
Guayaquil, city of "yellow jack," 

87, 88 
Grace Institute, helping Peruvian 

morals, 225 
Grace, W. R. & Co., 208 ff. 
assumes Peru's national debt, 

217 
branches of, 219, 220 
W. P. Grace and Panama 
Canal, 222, 223 

Havens, V. L., regarding meth- 
ods of trade with South 
America, 201 
Health conditions, 87, 88 
bathing customs, 103 
death rate of children in An- 
des, 146 
in Ecuador, 87, 88 
annual bath in Cuzco, 141 
Home life, of Chileans, 172, 183; 
of Peruvian Indians, 130, 131 
mortality of children on West 

Coast, 340 
South American women, 339, 
34o 
Horse raising, present condition 
of industry in Uruguay, 273 
Hospitality, 29 

Hurley, Chairman, cementing 
Pan-American relations, 211 

Incas, 135-151 

contrasted with Aztecs, 152, 153 

clemency of, 153 

laws and customs of, 152-163 
Immigration, Brazilians' desire 
for, 297 

Argentine, 237, 238 



Immigration, forbidden by Spain 
in early years, 91 

kind desired in Chile, 173 

kind wanted in Uruguay, 272 

of Argentines, 230 

plans for in Bolivia, 104 
Indians, advancement and relig- 
ion of, 25 

agricultural pursuits, 147, 148 

Aurucanians, 26 

characteristics of, 127 

curse of alcohol, 104 

followed by the Gaucho in Ar- 
gentina, 262 

giving of land to, 346, 347 

helplessness of, 48 

Inca Empire, 124, 125 

Incas, old highways of, 159 

industrial training needed, 133 

influence of Inca monarchy, 161 

lack of schools in Ecuador, 93 

languages of, 27 

marriage and romance, 131, 
132 

number of, 124 

numbers of in Bolivia and 
Peru, 25 

of Paraguay, 27 

of Peru, 124-134 

population in Ecuador, 92 

suspicious of the white man, 
126 

woman with spindle, 103 
Ins.-luto Ingles, description of, 

355 «. 
Instituto Ward, for commercial 

education, 364 
Italians, of Argentina, 230 
population of in Argentina, 236 

Jamaica, 219 

Japan, compared with South 

America, 44, 45 
Joinville, German town in South 

Brazil, 48 

Kingsley, Charles, quoted, 248 
Kipling, Rudyard, quoted, 323 
Koebel, W. H., description of 

South American Gaucho, 264, 

265 



42& 



INDEX 



Labour, peculiar labour laws in 

Uruguay, 270 
Land, agrarian laws of Incas, 136 
of cattle, 232 
rapid advances in prices of, 

Argentina, 235, 236 
wealth of Argentina, 229 
Language, generous and flowery 
use of, 37, 38 
South Americans sympathise 
with foreigners' poor Span- 
ish, 36, 37 
utility necessary for trade, 203, 

204 
journalistic fluency, 242 
La Paz, mecca of the Andes, 100, 

101, 102, 103 
La Prensa, Argentine newspaper, 

241 ff. 
Latifundia system in Argentina, 

the, 255 
Law, schools of numerous, 33 
Llamas, as carriers, 52 

"the living scales," 119, 120 
trails of from Cuzco to the 
Pacific, 315 
Lodge, Sir Oliver, quoted regard- 
ing belief, 341 
Lobos, M. Eleodore, speaks of Ar- 
gentine colonisation, 239 
Lumber, mills in Bolivia, 221 
Luro, Pedro la Basque immigrant 
millionaire of Argentina, 
254 
Lusitania, effect of sinking, 63 

Manta, worn in Chile, 182 
Marriage, between blacks and 
whites, 302, 303 
Inca customs of, 159 
in Peru, 335, 336 
Mercantile, Institute at Santiago, 
branch school in La Paz, 105 
Merchant marine, American, 212 

relation to trade, 225 
Mendoza, and her vineyards, 

227, 228 
Mestizo, in Ecuador, 87 

numbers of, 25 
Mexico, attitude of Latin Ameri- 
cans to, 293 



Military rule of Incas, 157 
Minerals, found in Peru, 118, 

119 
Missions, conducted by foreign- 
ers, 364 
progress of Protestant Chris- 
tianity, 353 ff. 
Protestant, secret meetings in 

Chile, 352 
schools, 355 ff. 
Theological Seminary, 354 
Y. M. C. A. in Chile, 353 
Misti, Mount, 192 
McAdoo, Secretary, speaks re- 
garding new shipping line, 
211 
McKinley, President, and Pana- 
ma Canal, 222 
Monroe Doctrine, Brazilians fa- 
vourable to, 300 
barrier against European mon- 
archies, 403 
no longer paper shibboleth, 71 
Montevideo, Capital of Uru- 
guay, 269 
Montavon, Wm., quoted regard- 
ing needs of trade, 188, 189 
Moslems, compared with Incas, 
iS7 

Navy, U. S., related to consular 

work, 398 
Negroes, coloured question, 413 
found in Brazil, 285 
lack of training for citizenship, 

25 
number in Peru, 124 
Newspapers, La Prensa, The 
Standard, La Nacion, influ- 
ence of, 412 
El Diario, La Razon, 241 ff. 
advertisements of religious 

services, 353 
publicity concerning U. S. 
needs, 189 
Nicaraguan Canal, early propri- 
etor, 222 
Nitrate, fields in Chile, 115, 166 
Germany's production of, 197 
loss of by Peru, 196 
population engaged, 173, 174 



INDEX 



Ordonez, Jose Bartley, political 

leader of Uruguay, 272 
Orientalism, among South Amer- 
icans, 31-46 
in customs of Incas, 160 
in woman's dress, 332 
patriarchal home life, 183 
strain of in Brazil, 297 
the Oriental Republic, 269 

Pan Americanism, co-operation 

required, 407, 408 
help of students, 392, 393 
improvement of knowledge of 

consular service necessary, 

395 
paper idealism, 45 
helped by German intrigue, 

70, 71 
solved by personal contact, 304, 

305 
Pan American Union, organisa- 
tion and work of, 23, 24 
Panama, Army and Navy, 85 
business and politics in, 72-86 
description of, 72-74 
education, 83 
Exposition of, 84 
Paraguay, Brazilian war with, 
304 
Indian Republic, the, 27 
Pardo, President of Peru, quoted 
concerning business enter- 
prises, 122 
Paris, liked for a holiday, 401 
early efforts, 222 
imitated in South America, 231 
Panama Canal, a liberator, 44 

cost of, 72 
Panama hats, from Ecuador, 89 
Pezet, Sefior Don Frederico A., 

quoted, 31 
Peru, Capital, 119 
characteristics of Peruvians, 

106-116 
copper mines, 193 
Humboldt quoted regarding 

Peru, 117 
irrigation needed, 118, 192 
finances of, 217 
marriage ceremonies, in 



Peru, natural resources of, 117- 
123 
need of caring for Indians, 162 
old Inca monarchy, 161 ff. 
President of Peru quoted con- 
cerning business, 122 
publicity plan needed, 189 
population of, 26, 27 
rich products of the soil, 1 17-120 
railroads, 193 
safety of investment, 121 
schools for Indians needed, 107 
society of, 109 
sugar factories, 193 
trade with the United States, 

123, 193 
women of, 332 ff. 
Petroleum, Peruvian oil fields 

second in the world, 121 
Philip II, policy of, 44 
Piquante, the vegetable stew of 

South America, 130 
Pizarro, Francisco, Governor of 

Ecuador, 89, 90 
Plate, River, 252 
Plaza de las Armas of Cuzco 

described, 136-138 
Politics, a gentleman's vocation, 

33 
Porras, Dr., President of Panama, 

interview with, 79-84 
Portinos, the inhabitants of 

Buenos Aires, described, 252 

ff. 
Portugal, influences of in Brazil, 

289 ff. 
Portuguese, element in Brazil, 

284 
proverb regarding trade, 188 
Ports, new dock works in Uru- 
guay, 270 
on West Coast, 21s 
Positivism, in Brazil, 285 

rise of in Brazil, 301 
Potosi, silver mines of, 102 

Queiroz, Sefior. Souza, quoted 
regarding Brazilian affairs, 
291 ff. 

Quichuas, of Peru, 103 

Quito, 88, 89 



424 



INDEX 



Races, how composed, 24-27 
Railroads, of foreign capital, 254. 

of Peru, 217 

recently built in Panama, 82 

shops in Chile, 221, 222 

Transandean, 210, 218 
Railways, condition in Uruguay, 
279, 280 

number of miles in Brazil, 314 
Religion, Argentine professor's 
idea of, 259, 358 

Brazilians indifferent to, 285 

Catholics in Chile, 167 

by conquest like Moslem, 157 

condition of in Brazil, 301 

Inca and Roman faith con- 
trasted, 341, 342 

of Argentina, 233 

of Argentine women, 338, 339 

of Incas, 155 

of South Americans, 341 ff. 

reality needed in Peru, 349, 350 

Sun worshippers, 343, 344 
Republics, number of, 24 

taking time to develop, 92 
Revolutions, in Panama, 80 
Rio de Janeiro, automobilists' 
paradise, the, 321, 322 

distributing centre for automo- 
biles, 320 

"It is Rio that I mean," poem, 

325, 3?7 
Its environment and beauty, 

323-327 
Sea that guards Rio, the, 323 ff. 
Theatre presentations of Amer- 
icans, 39 
Rio Grande do Sul, rolling hills 

of, 411 
Rondon, Col., friend of Brazilian 

Indians, 133 
Roosevelt, Colonel, men who suc- 
ceed, 208 
visit to Brazil, 287, 288 
Root, Elihu, impression of visit, 

287 
Roads, need of in Brazil, 312 ff. 

Sacsahuaman, fortress of, 138 
Saint Francis de Sales, quoted, 
32-53 



Salabarresta, Policarpa, Colom- 
bian heroine, 329 
Sanfuentes, Senior Juan Louis, 

the man of the Chilean 

"White House," 168 
interview with, 171 ff. 
San Marcos, University of, 371 
Santiago, city of aristocracy, 178 

ff. 
college of, 356 
Sa^o Paulo, character of the Paul- 

istas, 291 
Santa Cruz, required industrial 

and maritime population, 239 
Serochee (mountain sickness), 

characteristics of in Andes, 

120 
Shipping, ships and trade, 213 

to South America, 209 ff. 
Singer Sewing Machine Co., 78 
Socialism, signs of in Chile, 170 
South America, cowboy of, 261 ff. 
possibilities of agriculture in 

the Andes, 128, 129 
socialism as seen in Argentina, 

259 
South Americans, attitude to col- 
our lines, 28 
admire women, 40 
attitude to work that of Span- 
iards, 39, 40 
characteristics of, 27, 30, 36 
conception of Americans, 190 
contrast with Japanese, 22, 44, 

48 
contrast with N. Americans, 29, 

30 
desire government positions, 33 
fluent in speech, 37, 38, 41 
hospitality and friendship of, 

29, 30 
love of display, 96, 97 
lovers of music, 114 
mental endowments of, 32 
message to North Americans, 

116 
moral characteristics, no, in 
opinion of Germans, 60, 61 
Oriental traits of, 31-46 
penchant for ornate buildings, 
36 



INDEX 



425 



South Americans, point of view 
of, 19-30 
politeness must be cultivated, 3a 
racial mixtures, 22 
sensitive to criticism, 412 
susceptible to official attention, 

7 6 
soul and heart qualities, 403 ff. 

temperament, 85 

winning their regard, 403 ff. 
South and Latin America, anti- 
social tendency of, 43 

climate, 31 

cost of living in, 205, 206 

diversity of population, 27 

early settlements of, 34 

cities, much alike, 178 

how settled, 22 

North and South America, 415 

number of republics, 24 

population, 22 
Spain, families in Chile, 167 

Spanish ancestry strong in 
Peru, 191 

Spanish civilisation deficient, 

43, 44 
Spanish, adventurers, their aims 

in South America, 107, 108 
influence in Ecuador, 89, 90 
traditions handicapping South 

America, 239, 246 
Standard Oil Co., 78 
Sucre, ior, 102 
Sugar cane, cultivation in Peru, 

118 
Sundays, bill prohibiting Sunday 

work in Bolivia, 104 

Tagore, Sir Rabindranath, 

quoted, 403 
Temperance, agitation of, 354 
Trade, Bolivian, Great Britain 
and Argentina, 237 
conditions necessary for Ameri- 
can trade with Uruguay, 274, 
275 
customs, revenue, 97 
American enterprise entering 

Ecuador, 94 
experts from Argentina, 227, 
228 



Trade, interpreted by Spanish 
critic, 403 

manufactures and industries of 
Uruguay, 278 ff. 

new possibilities through Pana- 
ma canal, 74 

development related to consular 
service, 396 ff. 

opinion of business man of 
Panama, 74, 75 

Peruvian commerce with Unit- 
ed States, 123 

pioneers in, 208 ff. 

possibility of in ships, 220 

President Pardo quoted, 122 

prohibited with outside nations 
by Spaniards, 91 

suggestions to Americans, 77, 
78 

the South American's question 
to North America, "What do 
we get?", 86 

tropical products, 12a 

Traveller, American, abroad, 395 
ff. 

Travelling salesmen, kind need- 
ed, 203 ff. 

Treasure, buried in Cuzco, 376, 
377 

University, of Santiago, 381, 382 
Uruguay, the fighting Gaucho, 

267 
Uruguay and the Uruguayans, 
general description of, 269 ff. 
financial integrity of, 276 ff. 
economics contrasted with state 

of Nebraska, 280, 281 
population needed, 279 
United States, relation to A. B. 
C. diplomacy pleasing, 293 
how considered by Latin Amer- 
icans, 287 

Vegetable ivory, industry in Ecua- 
dor, 89 

Viga, Santos, the minstrel of the 
Pampa, 266 

Viera, Dr., President of Uru- 
guay, interview with, 270, 271 



INDEX 



War, declared by Brazil against 
Germany, 65 
by other republics, 67 
Watson, William, quoted, 178 
West Coast, shipping service 

shortened, 209, 210 
Wilson, President's writings 
known to South Americans, 
quoted relative to college 
life, 404 
Women, Argentine types, 257, 258 
Chilean women beautiful, 182 
at "Vermuth time", 185, 186 
church attendance in Peru, no 
contrasted with Americans, 294, 
295 



Women, education of, 333 

entering business in Brazil, 
294 

in senate at Lima, 332 

Indian in Andes, 103 

seclusion of, 31 

South American, 328 ff. 
Wyckham, William, quoted, 33 



Yanes, Francisco J., quoted on 
characteristics of Latin 
American mind, 407 

Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion, in Chile, 353; work in 
Buenos Aires, 363 






JAN 16 1951 



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